My good friend over at Feet Meet Street (When I say ‘friend,’ I don’t mean actual friend. I’ve never even met the guy.  I think he’s a teacher and if we worked at the same school, we could be friends), talks about how setting goals helps us realize just how colossal our failures are. Funny stuff.

But is it true?

As the URL of this wonderful blog suggests, I have set a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon. When I started training, months before I started the blog, I had no notion of qualifying for Boston. I just felt it would be a good time to run a marathon. As I lost weight and got faster (mostly through cross training), I thought it would be a great idea to set a ridiculous goal: qualify for Boston. To find out just how ridiculous this goal is, just check out this listing of my qualifications.

Yesterday, my first semi-serious run after the strained soleus, while recovering from a minor chest cold, I ran 6.2 miles (Technically, I ran 6.45. I stopped after the first ¼-mile to forcefully discharge phlegm, walked back, and started over). I finished that 6.2-mile run 11 seconds faster than my fastest time ever. Now you would think that’d be accompanied by fist pumps and jumping jacks. Not the case. It was so much slower than the time I would need to even have a slight chance of qualifying for Boston that I was upset.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

It’s bad in the sense that I should have at least given myself a pat on the back for running faster (nearly a full minute faster per mile than I ran a 10-k in June). It’s good in the sense that without a ridiculously stupid goal, I would not have improved my times as much. In addition, because there’s so much more improvement needed, there’s little chance for complacency.

So, yes goals do help us realize just how colossal are our failures, but they help us fail less than we would have unknowingly failed otherwise.

*************

12 goals for 2012

1. Finish the Utah Valley Marathon in less than 4 hours. I realize this goes against the blog’s URL.
2. Finish the Utah Valley Marathon in less than 3.75 hours. So does this.
3. Finish the Utah Valley Marathon in less than 3.50 hours. And this.
4. Finish the Utah Valley Marathon in less than 3.25 hours and qualify for Boston. I can have multiple goals for the same event and there’s nothing you can do about it.
5. Run the River Mountain Loop. That’s a 35-mile extremely hilly route that goes around the River Mountains, adjacent to Lake Mead, in Southern Nevada.
6. Run the River Mountain Loop without dying.
7. Drop an additional 15 lbs. I currently weigh 180. 180 pounds is the least I’ve weighed on New Year’s Day since I was in the 7^th grade. I’m estimating that 165 pounds would be a better running weight to have any shot at goals 3 and 4. It would also make goals 1 and 2 less painful and more likely.
8. Finish paying off my student loan. We actually had this goal for 2011. We hammered out ¾ of it last year. It’ll be done by March. What does this have to do with qualifying for the Boston Marathon? Not much. But there are some applicable principles between the two: (1) Consistent effort produced big results; (2) The goal provided motivation to work more; (3) I ate a lot of pasta.
9. Attract more visitors to my blog. If you’re reading this then the goal’s been accomplished.
10. The last three deal with my relationship with God and all that stuff that makes me a better father, husband, person, and runner—things like prayer, serving others, developing charity, not murdering walkers who travel three abreast on mountain trails and don’t move when I politely yell “passing on the left,” and studying divinely inspired writings. These are actually goals 1-3, not 10-12 but this is a running blog and not a religious one so I put them at the end.

Bulletin Board Material

This excerpt from Benjamin Cheever's Strides: Running Through History with an Unlikely Athlete got me thinking about bulletin board material, motivation and when we need it most:

"And swiftly indeed did they run, for the prize was no mere beast for sacrifice or bullock's hide, as it might be for a common foot-race, but they ran for the life of Hector.  Three times they ran around the city, and then Hector stood to fight.  He lost, of course. Everybody lost to Achilles...Then Achilles tied Hector's dead body to a chariot and dragged it back and forth before the walls of the city.   

And you have to think that if Hector had known this was going to happen, he might have lost those last five pounds, taken the necessary days off, and done his interval work."

That got me thinking about motivation.  When did Hector need the motivation to run harder (yes, I know Cheever's account is rife with satire; just play along)?  It certainly wasn't when Achilles chased him with a spear. It certainly wasn't when his life was on the line.  He needed the motivation while training to fight.

That got me thinking about bulletin board material.  Quite often before a big sporting event, some idiot will run his mouth about how much better his team is than the other team.  Then the media gets a hold of it and claims that the aforementioned idiot gave the other team "bulletin board material," suggesting that the insulted team's coach is going to post the insult on the bulletin board so his entire team can see it, providing the necessary motivation to win the game.  That's dumb.

You mean to tell me that athletes need extrinsic motivation to play hard during the Super Bowl, Conference Championship Game or the annual rivalry game with State University?   These athletes need motivation in the off season, when there's no one watching, when nobody cares, when there is no immediate reward for playing well or playing hard.  That's when bulletin board material would help.  Everyone plays hard once the contest begins.  Everyone runs hard once the race begins.

That got me thinking about the Marathon (or any race of import).  Few runners have trouble getting out of bed on race day.  Few runners have trouble getting started when the gun goes off.  Few runners find trouble running hard when passed going up a hill.  Few runners, unfortunately, achieve anything close to their potential.  Why?  Because it's not the race that determines greatness or success.  It's the race preparation.

Few runners love getting up early for the daily training run.  Few runners relish the first 100 yards on a cold morning running alone.  Few runners are willing to power up a hill when there's no one to pass and no one to hold off.  This is when we need the bulletin board material.  This is when we need the motivation.

What's my bulletin board material?  Everyone who tells me I can't qualify for Boston.  So far, that would be everyone except my wife.  I'm not even convinced I can do it.  I even called myself out in my blog, printed it out and posted it on my bulletin board.

Whatever it takes.

What's your bulletin board material?

Calling Me a Runner Was a Bit of a Stretch

I have entered races in the past. See if you notice a pattern (I’m going from memory).

• 4th of July 5-k blast in Las Vegas: More people finished ahead of me than behind me, including a blind guy, a six-year old and a pelican.
• 10-mile Koloa Sugar Mill Run in Kauai, Hawaii:  A great way to ruin your dream vacation.  I'm not sure anyone finished behind me.  The halfway point was the low point of my life.
• Rock to Pier Run 2009 (6.1 miles) in Morro Bay, California: More people finished ahead of me than behind me, including a school of dolphins who leaped out of the water and onto the beach in order to mock me.

• 

  Make sure the chain's on your bike before you start the race

  Lake Las Vegas Sprint Triathlon 2008: A lot more people finished ahead of me than behind me, including the 74 people who swim slower than me and a few carp who, although slow runners, are fast bikers.
• New Year’s Day five-mile run in Las Vegas, 2007: I got passed by several men in their 70s. With about a half-mile left, another 70-year-old tried to pass me, but I outkicked him at the finish…and pulled a calf muscle.
• Rock to Pier Family Reunion Run in Morro Bay: My brother-in-law Parry destroyed me…so did several other brothers-in-law, a couple nephews, my wife, and an amputee octogenarian.

• 

  I passed out right before this picture was taken  after getting harpooned.

  Showdown at Sundown Olympic-Distance Triathlon, Las Vegas, 2010: just under 3:30; 92 people finished before me; 13 finished behind me; 3 didn’t finish.
  
  

I already know I can finish things, but I’m done with being a back-of-the-packer.

There is an exception to my back-of-the pack racing career. I did win the 2008 Grand Phelasco Sprint Triathlon in Boulder City, Nevada. There were three participants: me, my wife and my wife’s friend Laura. Although my wife can bike and run faster than me, I swim much faster. A simple manipulation of the course—instead of a 500 meter swim, it was 1000 meters—and I had a large enough lead coming out of the water to hold her off. I was runner up the next two years.

Although my endurance increased during the 15 years of running, I kept getting slower and slower and slower. 

10-mile Koloa Sugar Mill Run in Kauai--I'm totally destroying that lady behind me!