It is funny how arbitrary numbers (usually round ones) can take on undue significance in a sport like running. When I began running half marathons, I became fixated on the goal of finishing in less than 2 hours. While the number is arbitrary (would my performance have been a failure if I\u2019d have run the race in 2 hours and 10 seconds?), setting a goal and striving for it is an extremely valuable motivational tool that keeps me pushing and, ultimately, succeeding. <\/p>\n
Now that half-marathon season is over, I decided to run in the Capital 10K race in Austin on March 29. But what goal to set? My first race ever was a 10K last August, and my time was a disappointing 64 minutes (granted, it was my first race and it was 95 F at the start of the race). My best 10K split during a half marathon was 55 minutes, so I decided that a goal of 50 minutes made sense. That would mean that I would have to trim my half-marathon pace of 9 minutes\/mile by about 1 min\/mile \u2013 not an easy task.<\/p>\n
With the goal set, I began to train for that goal. Then, my father-in-law had to make his opinion known (something he is very good at): \u201cYou know, anyone over forty should be able to run a 10K in their age in minutes.\u201d I was perfectly happy with my 50 minute goal, but this new challenge kept haunting me: I would need to run the race in 48:54 min (yes, I counted the days\/seconds). Only about a 1 minute difference, but that can mean a lot when you are running at your limits.<\/p>\n
So on race day, I ended up with two goals, the \u201cofficial\u201d one and the more aggressive one that I couldn\u2019t get out of my mind. The final result? I finished the race in 49:42, for a pace of exactly 8:00 min\/mile. I was very happy with the result (after all, it was a 15 minute improvement over my last 10K), though I didn\u2019t meet the \u201crun the race in your age\u201d goal. Maybe next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is funny how arbitrary numbers (usually round ones) can take on undue significance in a sport like running. When I began running half marathons, I became fixated on the goal of finishing in less than 2 hours. While the number is arbitrary (would my performance have been a failure if I\u2019d have run the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lithoguru.com\/life\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}