20- Own Your Journey

In this episode of Miles From Her View, Kat gets real about what it means to focus on your journey, tune out the noise, and stay true to your goals—whether in fitness, motherhood, or life. Fresh off a recent trail marathon, Kat shares the lessons she learned about setting aside pride and ego, listening to your body, and redefining success on your own terms.

She also dives into an inspiring quote by ultra-runner Dean Karnazes:
"A marathon is not about running, it is about salvation... only you can turn your farfetched dream into a reality."

Kat opens up about her mental and physical struggles leading up to the race, juggling family, running her business, and staying committed to training for an upcoming 100-mile race. She reminds us that only you know your plan, and no one else’s expectations should shape your journey. It’s a powerful conversation for anyone who’s ever felt overwhelmed by outside pressures, whether you’re hitting the trails or just trying to balance the chaos of everyday life.

If you’ve been feeling the weight of comparison or doubting your own progress, this episode is for you. Tune in for an honest conversation about showing up for yourself, setting realistic goals, and finding support along the way.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to prioritize your goals without getting caught up in others’ expectations
• The importance of listening to your body and adjusting when needed
• Why the journey is just as important as the finish line
• A message for busy moms who are ready to embrace their strength and fitness journey

Listen now and start owning your race—your way.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and message Kat with your thoughts on the episode. Your support helps more women find the podcast and join the conversation!

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Transcript

0:00

I don't feel like you're pushing hard, but not sure if it's enough. What if the real challenge is focusing on your plan and shutting out the noise? In today's episode of miles from her view, we dive deep into what it means to show up for yourself because only you know your journey. Hey everyone. Welcome. Welcome back. I'm so grateful for you to be here. I'm Kat, your host. I'm the founder of CatFit. I am a DASM certified personal trainer with two decades of experience. And here we are really all about having those authentic conversations. For strength training, nutrition, cardio, and those mental shifts that come with balancing motherhood and womanhood. So whether you are deep into your fitness journey or just starting, we're all about celebrating every mile, every victory, big or small. So welcome. And I hope you enjoy this episode. So a couple weeks ago, I ran a trail marathon and let me tell you, it wasn't your typical race. I've done this race before and it's an endurance race where you have 12 hours to run as many five miles loops as you want. So it's 12 hour window and it's really up to you what you want to do out there. So every runner there, there was about 200 plus runners had different goals. We didn't really know unless you discussed what the other person's goal was, whether you knew them or you were just having that pre race chat. And some of my trail friends, we like, we ran, we chatted about our plans for the day. But at the end of the day, it was up to each one of us to know our plan and execute our plan or listen to whatever we needed that day. So for me, I went into that race. It's a little, little banged up. Um, my body was aching. I had this SI joint flaring up, um, and I really was like, man, I've run this race before. I want to get out there and I want to run faster, best my time and, you know, run it not as many miles because that was not the plan going into that. I wasn't. Ever going to run the full 12 hours, I had about 68 hours, you know, in my training plan that I was going to work off of and that was like the safe zone, but really what I needed to shift and challenge myself with that day was setting aside my pride and ego because I'm in the final training block for my next 100 mile race. And that's my A goal. But I want to share with you what I learned because you don't have to run ultras to learn this. And I really think it is something about challenging your body, being consistent with a strength training plan, a cardio plan, managing all facets of life. I mean, that is an ultra marathon in and of itself to juggle kids, work, you know, everything else out of that and your own wellbeing. That is a lot. And on some days we struggle with, am I making the right call or not? That day, I really learned what it means to set aside that ego and how to celebrate a milestone that I have achieved over 20 times. And find joy and happiness in that. So, first off, there's no shame in doing less than what you've done before, even if it means listening to your body. And this brings me to a powerful quote by Dean Karnazes, who is an ultra marathon runner, and that sums up how I was feeling. A marathon is not about running. It is about salvation. We spend so much of our lives doubting ourselves, thinking we're not good enough, not strong enough, not made of the right stuff. The marathon is an opportunity for redemption. Opportunity because the outcome is uncertain. Opportunity because it is up to you and only you to make it happen. I just love that quote. Now, you don't have to take it As you have to go run a marathon to understand that quote, like I said, life with kids and juggling all the things is a marathon, a mental and a physical marathon of itself, but focusing on yourself, your body, and your plan is the real victory. No one else knows your goals, but you, and we get so caught up in what others think or how we compare to someone else's progress, but it's your journey that matters. Okay, I'm going to say that again. It's your journey that matters. And let me tell you, when I hit that milestone of running a marathon, the amount of support I had for my fellow runners, from people I knew, from people who knew that I had run farther, I have run a hundred miles, from people who knew I have run faster than I've run that trail marathon that day, to people who've done Oh my goodness. Even more incredible things than I have ever done run faster, you know, set records, etc. And then also from the strangers who I didn't know who's out on that course. was overwhelming from fist bumps to congratulations to just amazing, great work out there. It just reminded me how much power and support we can draw from others when we're truly true to our own path. They didn't know that wasn't my fastest marathon. They didn't, you know, some of the people there didn't know that I've run further. They didn't know what I was overcoming. Yes, people who I knew knew what I overcame. They knew some struggles I faced out there, but That day I stayed focused and it wasn't a force. Oh, I got to be happy for running a marathon. I mean, that is a huge feat. I don't want to sit here and be like, Oh, I've reached this so many times. Like who cares? That's below me. It is not at all. And I also want to stress for anyone who's sitting here listening and being like, wait a minute. She's run a marathon. She's run this. I can barely run a mile. Or I was proud with my own five miles again. It's your own journey. And to be honest, I have shut down runs. There was one time and I remember this vividly in the peak block of training for my last hundred miler. I went out for a run. I shut it down. My body felt great that day. It didn't even reach the half mile mark. Things just all fell off. There was no aches and pains. I wasn't inflamed like I was in this race. And I shut it down. I said, you know, it's not today. As I always tell people, I'm like, be so grateful for the distance that you travel, whether it is you. Getting to that workout, warming up for that workout, celebrate it. I think sometimes we feel we have to have these big grand things, but we need to focus on our own journey. And the point is, is staying focused on you and knowing that your goals are your goals. We cannot compare ourselves to another person's goals and try and match them because that may be right for them and wrong for you because you are a unique being and when I train clients there's a lot of commonalities my clients have but there's a lot of differences and where one client may be excelling with this style workout or this arrangement it may be detrimental to another client. And I think that is huge. And in this race where all 200 plus of us were out there, focused on our own goals, but yet could still support and be so pumped up for another runner. I think that's huge. And I think finding that type of community really allows for that growth and allowing for you to have those mental mindset shifts. So really wrapping this up, whether you're a busy mom out there juggling work and kids and your own fitness goals, remember again, no one knows your plan, but you. Show up for yourself, tune out that noise, get off the gram. I mean, I love chilling there. Get off of it. Maybe. And I say this with love and I've been there. Maybe you have to snooze someone who's close to you because their journey doesn't help you in yours. Okay. Maybe you have to kind of just tune them out. You know what I'm saying? Block them out and never ever talk to them again. But like, focus on yourself. Tune out the noise and be proud of every step you take. Like, be proud of it. I wanted to so bad when I was finishing that marathon milestone to be like, what does it matter? It's not a marathon. I had hopes of doing a 50k or hitting 35 miles a day. But I was like, you know what? I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of myself for showing up. I'm proud of myself for listening to myself. And that's the thing you have to take. It doesn't matter how much you've done the day before. Be proud of what you've done today, because tomorrow's not guaranteed. If you put that and cheerleading into everything that you do. Do you, you're going to stick with it. You know, your journey is yours and it's more than just hitting that metaphorical finish line. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode from milestone review. If this resonated with you, I'd love for you to leave a review or rate us. It helps other women, especially moms like you find the podcast and get inspired. And don't forget, there's this new feature that you can message me, just message me. Maybe you have thoughts you want to share. Maybe you want to celebrate a win. And actually, you know what? Drop those wins in there. I will celebrate it for you. If you need someone to help cheerlead, message me. I mean, message me. That would be awesome. I love throwing that support out there. Or if you want to share a story with me of redemption or focus, like let's drop that in there. The message, that'd be awesome. So let's keep lifting each other up and thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you next time.