Going off the map....sort of

Well, next week is week 7 of my 12 week goal. 7 miles. That's one more mile that I am used to running on my longest runs. I've gone over 6 a few times, but only by accident or if the race route was slightly longer than. I will now be more than halfway through my goal, a goal I set into motion over a month ago, and will carry though on until the end.

A lot of what I do has to do with setting goals and not giving up until the end. I'm not perfect. Have I given up in the past? Sure. Who hasn't. But I've found that goals set in a public forum such as this, tend to stick. It all goes back to the accountability thing. I have no idea how many people actually follow this blog, I can tell that pages have been "viewed". But knowing that, by putting my goals out here, it makes me feel like I owe it to all of you (and myself) to carry through on them. Ever since I started this a year ago, I haven't slowed. I've picked up the pace. I can't believe that a year ago I was getting ready for my first 5k race. A race that I thought might just be a one time thing to help make a difference after learning that a friend had thyroid cancer. Boy was I wrong.

In the last year, I've run over 300 miles (20 of those were this week alone). I've run in almost a dozen races, including two out of state (one of those races was even run for about a block with a really great friend, thanks Brad, I really needed that pick right then). I've had my own small cheering sections of one or two people, thanks Shelly and mom and dad. It's been amazing. Sometimes I wonder why I keep doing it when I could spend the time after work or on the weekends out on my bike cruising the back roads, or sleeping in an other hour on weekdays. I guess it's something that I just really enjoy doing. It keeps me active, helps me focus, and sometimes I can use it to help out a good cause. I love the competition when it's there. I love to see how much I can improve.

After my run today, I was going over what races I still had this year, and became a little sad at seeing how quickly this year is coming to an end. Where has it all gone? Next week I have the Middleton Good Neighbor Festival 5k, followed by the Carbone Race for Research two weeks later. October will bring the Haunted Hustle 5k, going to try and maintain my division win from last year. Instead of the 5k, I will be doing the 10k in the Berbee Derby on Thanksgiving day. December, I'm not sure what is happening then. Last year I was running in Littleton Colorado. As much as I'd love to make it back there, I don't know if that will happen this year. So there's the rest of the year as it stands right now. Still plenty busy, and lots of opertunities to fit more races in.