Goals

I've been thinking a lot about goals as I've been doing the 5K training. I never had any doubt that I could finish a 5K, but, as recently as a few weeks ago, I was still very skeptical about being able to run the whole 5K. I still am, given the erratic runs of Week 7, but I am trying to remain optimistic. Right now, I'm holding off on determining a goal for the race. At a minimum, I want to finish the race and enjoy the experience. You only run your first race once, right?

I did come up with a set of goals in terms of races for the year. My goal was to do three 5Ks this year. That seemed very reasonable for a first-timer, yet I've found that, even before running my first race, I'm starting to think that that isn't enough, and I've been itching to add more races. I've at least convinced myself to not sign up for any more until I've gotten the first one under my belt, but in all likelihood, I'll end up adding a couple more. Here are the races I've committed to:

1. Ravenswood Run: Perfect timing for the first race and a nice neighborhood run.
2. Fleet Feet Sports Women's Festival: I thought it would be fun to do a women only race.
3. Hot Chocolate: Fitting, as this is the race that pushed me over the edge into this adventure last year. At some point I will write more about getting started with running, but last year I watched my friend Sue run the Hot Chocolate 15K and decided that maybe I could run a 5K. She's going to run it with me.

That's a good line up and well spaced, but I think I might want to add one in June and one in September. We'll see about that. I don't want to put the cart ahead of the horse. At this point, I have no idea how many would be too many and how many would be just right.

W7D1: 2.43 miles, 33.14 minutes
W7D2: 2.4 miles, 33.03 minutes (lots of walking)
W7D1: 2.4 miles, 32.01 minutes