Good Enough is Not Good Enough

Autism 5-K Race (Sunday)
Time: 26:35 (distance 3.29 miles)
Pace: 8:03 per mile
2nd female overall/54 total females (30 seconds behind overall female winner)
1st in age group
16th/97 total runners


Saturday's training schedule called for a 20-mile run. I was still feeling the effects of running in Hurricane Ike, the 6-mile hill workout on Wednesday morning and the race pace run on Thursday evening. Most of the run went along just fine. I was running by myself for almost the entire run. I had one more 5-mile section to complete when I came back into the Amtrak Station. I told Howard (my husband) that I was thinking 19 miles might be "good enough". He replied; "Good enough is not good enough". Of course those words stuck with me. And naturally I completed the entire 20 miles not a mere "good enough" 19 miles.

We all have (and need) those people around us who encourage us to stretch more, challenge ourselves more, or reach higher than we may be considering in the moment. A question I might have considered on Saturday morning, would have been:

"If I knew obtaining a Boston Marathon qualifying time depended on completing 20 training miles rather than 19 miles, which would I choose?"

Now all that's left to do is to get that time.

One additional note - I followed up Saturday's 20-miler with a 5-K race on Sunday. To my surprise I was able to run fairly hard. I placed 1st in my age group and what I believe was a pretty good pace. (I don't know for certain what my time was yet. The distance was long according to the race organizers - 3.3 miles rather than 3.1 and the official results have not been posted yet.) This is encouraging to be able to run fast the day after a long run. I've done three road races this summer (Park to Park 5 mile, Dog Days 5-K and the Autism 5-K this Saturday), placing 1st in my age group each time.

So, thank you Howard for challenging me to do more.