Yesterday I ran 20 miles. Then I celebrated.

It wasn’t the first time or the last time I will run 20 miles. I actually have no idea how many times I’ve run this specific distance. I do know we work so hard to achieve goals that forget to appreciate what we do to get there. We judge ourselves and dwell on our failures and missteps along the way to reaching our goals…and I’m over it. I’m currently as slow as I’ve ever been with my running paces, but I celebrated my accomplishment because it is just that.

20 miles has such significance for me. It’s so much more than just breaking out of the teens for mileage. It’s the distance that you look ahead at on the training plan. The long run you both dread and get excited for. It feels like a test of your training with its outcome a measure of how the big race day will go (it’s not always accurate, but it feels like it sets a tone). It’s the confidence builder we need before 26.2 and is often the starter of the taper. 20 miles is a barometer of the type of training I’m doing. One 20 miler is a just going to finish marathon. Two or more 20 milers and I probably have a time goal.

It’s the long run I failed to complete because of mother runner life in my last marathon training cycle before running the San Francisco Marathon last year. As a result, it’s the long run distance I haven’t run since before I had kids and got pregnant in 2014. It’s a mileage goal I haven’t checked off since having my kids… until yesterday that is. So yesterday I celebrated the one distance that has always meant so much to training for a marathon, and that I can finally cross off my training plan again.

I think we all need to celebrate more of our successes and those little victories we casually overlook or dismiss on the way to a bigger goal. These little successes set a tone and give us hope in our daily lives that we can achieve bigger things. They make you feel that pride that no one or no bad life event can take from us. We keep them as ours and use them on days when life throws its challenges at us.

So this 20 miler I’m celebrating a little longer, a little bigger and because I love champagne. I made a goal to do something every day that makes me happy. Running and champagne both do that for me.

What little victory should you be celebrating right NOW?!?!

Sarah