Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of when I started my new hobby of running, as chronicled in this blog entry. A handful of races and about 700 miles later, here I am, still at it. It has been a very interesting year. I've proven to myself that I can set a goal, create and follow a plan, and achieve my goal. I'd like to think that I'm in better shape than I was. Yes, I went from only being able to run two miles consecutively at a 10 minute per mile pace to running 13.1 miles at more than 2 minutes per mile faster, in addition to finishing a full 26.2 mile marathon. I often get frustrated at my progress on a week by week basis, but when I look back at numbers like that, it is rather clear that I have come a long ways in the past year.

Unfortunately, I think the magic is starting to wear off. Although I am coming off a great race last weekend, things are not looking great for next month's marathon. I set out to do a 20 mile run yesterday, but my legs would only take me 16 before giving out. I haven't been as dedicated and steadfast with my training this time around, and it has begun to show. While walking the remaining four miles back to my car yesterday, I considered skipping the marathon altogether. But I dismissed that idea, because I realized that even if I'm not able to achieve my goal time, completing a marathon is still an accomplishment, even if I end up taking 5 or 6 hours to do it.

Sure, I am disappointed that things are turning out this way, but I'm learning the hard way that you have to work for and earn things in life. You can't just achieve something and then hope to coast along and live off that achievement. You have to keep working and keep pushing yourself to continue moving forward. So if I do decide to do another marathon in the future, I will be able to look back and see what happens when I don't push myself, and avoid that pitfall.

This entry was posted by Brad, on Monday, April 10, 2006. You can leave your response.