The day before I flew to New Mexico I got a massage. Mike keeps me ready to run.

In our conversation I told him I had prepared for this race series better than I had since 2012. That’s how well I knew I had trained. I set goals and met them all. Nothing left to do but run.

Lesson #4: Prepare the best possible. But accept you can’t control everything.

For example, Race #1, starting temperature, 37F. Race #2, starting temperature, 25F. Race #3, starting temperature, 12F. But hey, no precipitation.

Next: At the start of Saturday’s race they announced a change in the course. Not that I really knew the difference, but still. Running down the side of a steep canyon to start the race was not what I had in mind. But hey, the easier course meant I finished 20 minutes faster than Friday.

Then came Sunday. More on that later. Suffice it to say, it was a day I’ll not soon forget. Pretty sure I’ve never been that cold. But hey, the rental car heater was amazing.

This is life. Prepare the best you can for the test and your nerves rattle your memory. Prepare the best you can for your wedding day and people turn out to be unreliable. Prepare the best you can for retirement and a diagnosis changes everything.

Part of the best preparation is accepting there is no way you can control all things. You can control your preparation. You can also control your response to what you can’t control. 

SUGGESTION: Purposefully place yourself in new or uncomfortable situations. Try a new route to work. Try a new recipe with your dinner guests. Go for a run in the rain. Let the kids decide where to go for dinner. 

With some practice, 2024 could be the year you accept it’s impossible to control it all.