One Mile at a Time
This weekend is Run Disney World Marathon Weekend, and it has me thinking about a race I never expected to run.
In 2017, I crossed the Disney World finish line of my first and only marathon.
I had never planned on becoming a runner. Growing up, I was quite literally the opposite. Athletics were not where I felt confident. If anything, I learned early what it felt like to be underestimated. But somewhere along the way, something shifted. After my daughter was born I started running. I remember the first time I ran my first mile - no stops. Then it was a 5K. A 5K became a 10K. A 10K turned into a half marathon. And slowly, almost quietly, a new thought entered my mind: Maybe I can do this.
What made that season even more meaningful was that I wasn’t doing it alone. My brother-in-law was living in Indiana, and I was in Texas, but we were training toward the same goal. Different places. Same intention. Same commitment. We were becoming marathoners long before we ever showed up to the starting line.
Then race weekend arrived… and so did a storm.
A cold front swept through Florida the night before the race. The coldest conditions I had ever run in. I remember standing in my corral wrapped in a trash bag, doing everything I could to stay warm, wondering how I was going to run for five plus hours in weather like that. As the race began, runners ahead of me started shedding layers. At one point, in what may be one of the least glamorous moments of my life, I picked up a discarded hat off the ground and put it on my head because I was freezing.
And I kept going.
Not because it was comfortable. Not because it was fun. But because I had trained for this. Early mornings. Parking garage runs just to get elevation. Miles logged when no one was watching. I had built the capacity to do something I once believed was out of reach.
Crossing that finish line wasn’t about the medal or the time. It was about who I had become in the process.
That is the part that stays with me.
We often talk about confidence as if it is something we either have or we don’t. But real confidence is built through evidence. Through doing the small, hard things consistently. Through becoming the kind of person who keeps showing up, even when conditions are not ideal. Especially when conditions are not ideal.
This is true in leadership. In careers. In life transitions. In every moment when we stand at the edge of something that feels bigger than we are.
We do not wake up ready for the big goal.
We grow into it.
Recently, my daughter asked if I would run a marathon with her. I quickly said no… but I did not say never. Because I know now that “never” is often just “not yet.” It is a placeholder for growth we have not stepped into yet.
That is what I see every day in my work with leaders. People who believe they are at their edge, when in reality they are just at the beginning of their becoming. The next chapter is not built through dramatic leaps. It is built through one intentional step at a time.
One conversation.
One courageous decision.
One moment of choosing progress over comfort.
If you are staring at a goal that feels impossible right now, I want you to hear this:
You do not have to be ready for the finish line.
You only have to be willing to take the next mile.
And then the next.
And then the next.
That is how transformation happens.
Photo note: The lime green hat that served me well on my journey.