2319: Becoming

I've spent some time this week reflecting on the JXN Run Club 601 Day 5K & 8K. I placed 3rd in the 5K with a time of 22:39. My fastest 5K yet. The course was challenging, winding through the rolling hills of Belhaven, MS. Other than running hard, I had no other goal. I started strong with a fast first mile, at 2 and a half I was hurting. Heart rate was through the roof. Vision was getting blurry but, I saw third place was hurting too.

Not sure if I’d finish 4th or 5th at this point.

With a quarter-mile to go I made my move. A chance for the podium had never been within reach. That wasn’t even an option in high school. All my running all my struggles all seemed to lead to this point.

Seeing the opportunity to place on the podium gave me a motivation I had never felt before. Almost as if my life flashed before my eyes. All of my struggles. The close chances at an athletic goal that slipped away. The times I wasn't given a chance to show what I could do.

Let me take us back to my very first track meet, where it seemed as if nothing was going my way. It was the first time I ran hurdles, and the hurdles definitely won that day. Still, it's an experience I can look back on, laugh about, and smile at now. But for a time, through high school, it shaped how I saw myself.

The last thought that came to me was my second and final track meet as a high schooler, when my coach told me, ten minutes before the race, that I wouldn't be running my event. All I remember is walking over to my parents and saying, "I'm not running today." A defeating feeling for a ninth grader.

I am a runner today.

Back then, I didn't let myself be seen as a failure. I just realigned my goals as a student and an athlete. It sent me down a path of thinking maybe sports weren't for me. But that wasn't true if you looked at my past. I'd always played at least two sports. Somehow, I'd just met my match with the hurdles. Funny enough, my track uniform was mismatched. I had the right top, but the shorts for distance runners. I guess you could call it subtle foreshadowing.

After letting track go, I didn't know what to do. Then a friend and future teammate suggested I become the soccer manager. I didn't know much about managing, but I knew the game, so I gave it a try. It was absolutely transformative. I became part of a team and actually felt like I belonged. If the players ran the track for conditioning, I did the same. It truly meant something to me, and I'm so grateful for how it shaped me.

Which brings me back to where it all started. As part of my weekly training with Fleet Feet's 5K Fast program, we do our speed workouts on the track. Specifically, the Madison Central High School track. The school I graduated from. Where doubt turned into confidence. All I could think about during that workout was, "What if I had run in high school? What if I'd competed even earlier?" Would I have been faster? Could I have earned a scholarship to run in college? Maybe. Maybe not.

My mentor shared some insight from his own journey as a distance runner. He started at 40, has run multiple ultramarathons, and has had injuries that required surgical repair. But despite all of it, he keeps running. He turned the same question on himself. What if he'd started at 19? How fast could he have been? His answer was honest. Maybe he'd have been fast. Or maybe he'd never have liked running at all.

We aren't the same people we were at 16. I'm 25 now, and I've lived some life. Good days, bad days, all of it. But I've grown, and I've strengthened my mind. The same will hold true at 30. I won't be the person I am today. There will be more experiences, more living with intention, more of whatever this season still has in store. That's been the key all along. We are never finished. We are always becoming.

For anyone reading who keeps replaying the chances that didn't go their way, or wondering who they might have become on a different road, I hope you can let that go. The path you walked is the one that built you. You are not the person you were at 16, and the very challenges that once felt like setbacks are what made your mind strong. What looked like a closed door may have been the beginning of something you couldn't see yet.

As I close, I remind myself that God gives us a chance every single day to chase whatever dream we carry. It is our purpose, our mission, to do exactly that.

Peace,

Zechariah Davis

🎵 Song of the Week

"Who Do We Think We Are" - John Legend, ft Rick Ross

📖 Scripture of the Week

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