[Originally published in the Monroe News on September 24, 2021]
It has been a few weeks now since I spent an amazing weekend up in the U.P. in Marquette with my brother. I was up in that gorgeous portion of our state to run a 50-mile ultramarathon. I’m in love with these endurance adventures especially because they are the perfect excuse to visit and explore some of the most wonderful parts of God’s creation. While I had a great time in Marquette my ultra race didn’t go as planned. I did not finish the race. It is what runners call a “DNF”. I failed. A tough mixture of above average heat and problems in my legs made for a shortened day.
In the weeks since I’ve wrestled with what happened that day and have been thinking over and over again about this word failure. Was my “DNF” a failure? I had set out that day to run a full race and hit that finish line and I didn’t achieve that goal. By that basic definition my race that day was a failure. I had come up short on my goal. As you well know this happens in many of life’s events, not just in running a race. We could look at these many goals and objectives we set and conclude that if we don’t reach them it too is a failure. But not everyone would agree.
