One Step at a Time

What do distance running, teaching, and discipleship have in common? Hills. Lots of hills.

Energy was high going into ACE race weekend—an opportunity to race and see some of the best people I know is a perfect combination. Running and community have been two of my rocks the past few months of teaching. Instances in which they merge (which is frequent in the Detroit house!) flood me with dopamine and gratitude. Before I head into eight hours with my 5th-grade rockstars, daily morning runs in the Motor City (often with community members) are a staple to clear my head and reset my energy. The ACE race and sunny Georgia skies on my mind certainly made the single-digit runs feel a little brighter. 

Race weekend started off with a bang, leaving professional development 30 minutes early to get to the airport. Though I was the only one of the three ACE Detroit travelers who ended up on our intended flight (that’s a story for another day!), we were greeted in Atlanta Friday night by Becky, my housemate Joey’s sister, who graciously hosted us over the weekend. 

Becky, the President of the Notre Dame Club of Atlanta, helped Lewis Poché, ACE liaison for the Notre Dame Club of Atlanta, organize a wonderful pasta dinner at the ACE Atlanta house. The evening was filled with joyful reunions, lively conversations, and, of course, plenty of carbs. We laughed over the race elevation map—which featured over 1,000 feet of elevation gain—and reminisced about marathon world record holder Sifan Hassan's interview after her epic win: “Why I say I’m going to run marathon? What is wrong with me?” Similar doubts floated around the living room, but they were easily outweighed by words of encouragement and grit. 

A too-short night’s sleep later, the 4:30 am alarm went off. It was go time! As I was getting ready, I saw a text from Father Ryan, my college Catholic center chaplain and long-time running partner. His advice regarding the daunting hills ahead was simple but powerful: “Look into, not to the top of the hill. For a tough runner, hills and elevation are your friend. Be smart. Run hard.”

The start gun went off at a brisk 30 degrees—which still felt tropical to this midwesterner! As we got up to the start line, unsure of the combination of joy and challenge ahead, we stared directly up a hill. I couldn’t help but think about the parallels between distance running, teaching, and discipleship. 

Just like running, teaching is full of challenges—some of which can seem insurmountable at first glance. We often face moments when we feel like we are staring at the top of a hill, unsure if we can summit. But just like Fr. Ryan’s advice to focus on the climb rather than the peak, I realized that in teaching, we too need to look into the challenge and take it head-on, one loving step at a time. In those moments, showing up each day for our students, just like showing up for each training run, strengthens us. And like those runs, the reward of persistence is always worth it. As we put in the work, the hills might even become our friend. 

Is this not the same as our discipleship of Christ? The word disciple comes from the Latin discipulus, meaning “learner,” and is closely related to disciplina, meaning “training.” Being a disciple is not about passively following, but about commitment to the discipline of actively learning and growing in faith. Christ makes it clear that following Him is no simple task, but charges us to embrace suffering and let Him transform it. Similarly, time on the course or in the classroom demands consistent effort, commitment and resilience, embracing challenges to grow stronger with each step.

Each hill was tackled steadily throughout the race, and every uphill eventually turned into a glorious descent. Soon enough, the finish line was in sight. We completed the task set in front of us, and, like in teaching and our faith, chipped away at each monstrous hill stride by stride. I could not help but be reminded that when the hills seem impossibly steep, we can always find God’s strength to keep moving forward—together, one step at a time. What a gift!