Recently, I had the honour of pacing a fellow runner on her 5 km time trial. Pacing someone is a stressful task to undertake. I was mainly worried about disappointing her by not having her reach her target.

Beforehand, I worked out a pacing strategy for us, taking into account the elevation gain of the route we were going to run. This pacing strategy should’ve comfortably gotten us to 40 minutes, maybe even a bit faster if we could finish strong.

But life never exactly works out as planned. Halfway through our run, just as we hit probably the most challenging section of our route, she started throwing up – twice! I was obviously pushing her too hard.

If I were in her position, I would probably have felt like quitting right then and there, and I was sort of expecting her to. But she didn’t quit. Instead, she pulled herself together and completed the last half of her time trial, finishing just 40 seconds more than the time she had hoped for, which was a season’s best time for her. We’ll try again another day to break that 40-minute barrier.

Her story makes me think of a quote I recently posted on my blog: “The race isn’t always to the swift, but to those who keep on running.”

Yes, being patient is hard.

Yes, sticking with the plan every day, week in and week out, come rain or shine is hard.

Yes, there are going to be many times that you want to give up.

Yes, picking yourself up from a stumble takes courage.

But, you’re capable of more than you imagine yourself to be if you just don’t give up.