The Power of Goals

I'm not a big "goal guy" when it comes to running. I have hopes whenever I run races, but with regard to running, I don't set too many real goals.

On Monday of this week, when I had full intentions of running 7 miles the next morning (if you read my previous post, you saw that that did not happen), I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to run my 7-mile in under an hour tomorrow?" This thought evolved into "I hope I run my 7-mile in under an hour." Then, a strange thing happened. The thought leapt from water to land and became, "My goal is to run my 7-mile in under an hour." Weird. Incidentally, up to this point, my fastest 7-mile morning run was 1:01:53, so I had to shave off about 2 minutes in running the short, serpentine 7-mile track through nearby neighborhoods--a track I have been running since mid-January.

So I ended up moving my 7-mile to today (Thursday). This morning's run was a little tougher than usual. I was pretty tired this morning, and there was a decent breeze, especially when running south. On top of that, the first 3 of 4 songs that played on my MP3 player were by Live. Don't get me wrong: I love the band, but they are just not the most inspirational when it comes time to run.

As I was running this morning, I would catch myself slowing down, and I'd remind myself of my goal. As I ran the final 3/4 mile around the "shell" of my neighborhood, I did not have high hopes. I expected to see 1:03+ when I picked up my "stopwatch" (an old iPod). As I ran up my driveway (unusually exhausted) and picked up my iPod, the animated digital numbers I saw made me laugh out loud:

59:01

I think I'll keep setting goals.

3-5-08
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 59:01
Avg. Mile Pace: 8:19