I’ve always said, “If you can run a marathon, you can write a novel.” And vice versa. Both require many skills, but at their core, the most important trait is self-discipline. Can you show up, day after day, and do the work? If you can, whether it takes five months or five years, you can reach the finish line.
This post continues a reflection I began back on February 3, 2025, in Finding Fulfillment in the Process, Not the Task. There, I wrote about my ability to take on very large challenges—running a 50-mile ultramarathon, hiking 2,000 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, writing five novels—by moving forward patiently and persistently, one step at a time.
At the time, I was recovering from a full right-hip replacement on December 16, 2024. My rehabilitation began with something small but steady: riding the exercise bike every morning. What started as thirty straight days turned into ninety, and it taught me again that showing up is more powerful than any single burst of effort.
Today, September 8, 2025, I’m celebrating a new milestone: I completed my first post-surgery road race—a half-marathon in 1:55:12, averaging 8:48 per mile. Not a winning pace, not a record-breaking feat. But to me, it’s proof of what steady, behind-the-scenes work can achieve.
Like my earlier post where I shared a simple record of my exercise bike rides, today I’m sharing some of the training logs that got me to the start line: four-mile runs before dawn, long weekend runs that stretched into double digits, and everything in between. What these numbers don’t show are the soccer games, CrossFit workouts, bike rides, and basketball practices that also built my strength. Nor do they capture the doubts I had about whether I could run again, let alone race.
There’s nothing glamorous about these logs—no Strava screenshots, TikTok updates, or dramatic finish-line photos. Just dates, times, and miles. But that’s the point: progress often looks ordinary up close.
Date Time Distance Pace
Wed, Jul 9 6:14a 4.03 mi 9:52
Fri, Jul 11 5:41a 4.92 mi 9:53
Sun, Jul 13 5:34a 4.27 mi 9:45
Wed, Jul 16 5:40a 7.02 mi 9:13
Fri, Jul 18 5:40a 5.91 mi 8:59
Wed, Jul 23 6:20a 4.34 mi 9:23
Fri, Jul 25 5:37a 8.52 mi 9:10
Tue, Jul 29 5:43a 4.43 mi 9:38
Wed, Jul 30 5:50a 4.89 mi 9:22
Fri, Aug 1 5:10a 9.20 mi 9:56
Fri, Aug 8 5:08a 9.60 mi 9:46
Wed, Aug 13 6:00a 5.87 mi 9:06
Fri, Aug 15 5:13a 10.50 mi 9:35
Tue, Aug 19 6:42a 4.83 mi 9:12
Thu, Aug 21 6:19a 7.14 mi 8:58
Sat, Aug 23 5:21a 11.11 mi 9:37
Tue, Aug 26 6:15a 6.82 mi 9:03
Thu, Aug 28 6:13a 7.07 mi 8:36
Sat, Aug 30 6:21a 4.53 mi 10:09
Tue, Sep 2 6:14a 6.55 mi 9:13
Thu, Sep 4 6:23a 4.63 mi 9:04
Sun, Sep 7 8:00a 13.1 mi 8:48
This discipline mirrors the rest of my life. As a small business owner, I’m at my desk every day, building a community of historical fiction readers and writers. As a restaurant manager, I show up for long shifts to support my dream of one day living fully as an entrepreneur, while also supporting my authors, colleagues, and contributors. In all of it—work, writing, recovery, running—the throughline is discipline.
This is who I am, for better or worse: someone who shows up. Someone who does the work. Someone who trusts that persistence, not brilliance, is the surest way to reach a goal.
So now I’ll turn the question to you:
What are your goals? What are you working toward patiently and persistently? And what have you accomplished simply by showing up, day after day, and doing the work?
Congratulations on recovering and getting to a half-marathon! That is no small accomplishment.
Very cool and worthy of serious congratulations.