running

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Not a PB, but I beat my goal

I participated in Run The Great Lakes today. I ran 5K in about 27:28 (based on the clock at the chute – I took a while to dig out my phone and stop Nike+). It wasn’t my best race, or the best weather, or my best time, but it was better than my goal. 

 

The Route

 
I wanted to beat 28 minutes, since I haven’t run a race or run very regularly in a couple of years. Add in the accidental detour at the end (I went to the wrong parking lot and had to backtrack over a grassy divide), and I’m pretty happy with my performance. 

 

The Detour

 
I think I’ve said this on here before, but you don’t always have to do better than you’ve ever done before. It’s good to reevaluate your situation and set goals based on where you are, not where you’ve been. 

Of course, if I’d run a PB (like my wife did!) this would have been a very different post :)

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Doing worse is fine sometimes

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I just finished a 5K run in 27 minutes, 18 seconds. That’s not even close to my best time, which is a little over 23 minutes, if I remember correctly.

I might provide reasons (some would say “excuses”) for this backsliding of nearly 60 seconds per kilometre. I might say that I haven’t run consistently since last summer. I might say that it was windy, or that 2 kilometres were on soft, muddy, gravel road. I could probably invent a few reasons that sound plausible too.

But even though I can excuse my performance today, I don’t think I need to. Even if I had run 5K in 22 minutes last week a time of 30 minutes today would be just fine. I wasn’t trying to break any records; I was just trying to finish 5K.

And I did finish 5K. That’s an accomplishment, even if I didn’t get a virtual badge from Nike+. I don’t need to do better every time; it’s okay to do worse sometimes. I’m proud that I finished, and I’m happy that I received a few virtual backpats from my friends.