I didn't write the post at Competitor.com titled Here's My Excuse — What's Yours?, but I could have.
Everything Jason Devaney wrote was something I've done in the past few months (well, minus the part about covering the Olympics for NBC): aggressive pledges on which one falls short; complaints about the difficulties of training outdoors this winter; realizations that lowering a PR likely won't happen.
I don't follow any running bloggers I dislike — sounds obvious but there was one, a few years back, that I hate-read for a while — so when people like Jason write about how they've fallen short, I do feel bad.
And yet I also feel better about myself. Not in a smug misery-loves-company way, but in a OK-it-happens-to-the-best-of-us way. My realization that a PR might not happen wasn't throwing in the towel, but more like Karla Bruning's realistic assessment of her half marathon training situation.
These more experienced, accomplished runners take a much-less critical view of the situation. Jason plans to use his upcoming race as a baseline for the rest of the season; Karla will use hers as a training run for possible PR attempts in April and May.
So it's OK, not defeatist, that I'm opening my mind to another spring 5K, or that I'm accepting that I might have to wait until fall to go sub-24:00.
It's also the equivalent of the tabloids' "stars — they're just like us!" photo features: Oh look, it's not just recreational runners like me who make their big goals public, come up short and have only themselves to blame. Triathletes with Internet recognition do it too!
Thanks for the shout-out! I always feel bad when the pros put their goals out there and come up short. It's got to be hard with so many people watching. But, we're all human, right? Totally OK and not defeatist to realistically reassess things and make a shift. I like to think it's one of the few ways in which I am mature, haha.
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