Thursday, January 17, 2008

Goals

This quote is from the most recent issue of Marathon & Beyond (Jan/Feb '08, Vol. 12, Issue 1) and it's referencing one particularly difficult aspect of running that most runners will eventually deal with...
"...to simply announce your goals as a marathoner or ultrarunner, period. To tell your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers that you are training to run 26 miles, 385 yards, or 50 miles, or 100 miles. Making that claim, you are stripped of subterfuge. Your cards are on the table. From now on, there will be nowhere to hide. Make good with the claim, or expect to suffer the consequences. And the slings and arrows of your outrageous family and friends are sharp barbed, no doubt about it."
- Don Kardong
Though, I don't believe my friends and family would verbally abuse me if I was unable to reach a goal that I set out to, I know full well where the author is coming from. I still cringe when I think back to some of my initial post on this very blog, naive thoughts from some one who believes his low 7 minute and change pace during a 6 mile run could somehow be maintained for another 20.2 miles. And despite the fact that no one I know would chastise me if I ran slower than what I had previously spoke of, it's the telling of what actually happened that can be tough. I ran a 3:49:30.9 here is Seattle in November, I had hoped for a 3:45 or less, but what's 4 and a half minutes right? Well, to some 4 minutes 30 seconds is a mile plus some cool down time, for me it's a little more than 1/2 mile, but the amount of time over isn't so much the difference, it's that it's over at all. Sure, had I finished in 4 hours 45 minutes I would have been even more disappointed (not to say that's a bad time, a finish is a finish, and we all have our own abilities) but, never-the-less, I was over my goal, a goal that I had thought was some what modest. Now I feel as though I have to make it a point to tell people, when asked how it went I usually reply with "It was fun" or "I finished" if I'm asked for anymore details I'm usually fairly quick to say that I took longer than I had wanted. Don't get me wrong, I'm not filled with angst over that 4 minutes 30 odd seconds, I do, however, clearly understand the pit falls of making ones goals known.

Having said all that, here they are, my running goals for 2008.
  • Run a marathon in 3:30 or less
  • Run an Ultra, be that a 50K, a 50 mile, or more (the 100 mile will have to wait)
  • Follow my training schedule closer than last time (this directly relates to the 1st goal)
... these are some things I'd like to try as well, but won't be heartbroken if they don't happen
  • Run a sub 20 minute 5K
  • Run some sort of long distance relay (like this, this, or this)
  • Volunteer as support at a marathon
I'm sure I'm missing something, so I'll post these as an ever present list on the side bar and update whenever needed.

And just in case a 3:30 marathon isn't in the cards this year, I'll take solace in the words of 2 founding fathers...

"Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out."
-Benjamin Franklin
"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
-Teddy Roosevelt

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