I ran a 5k yesterday. Although I had been doing my normal running, I had not specifically trained for this race distance. The last time I really raced a 5K was in High School. So going into this race I didn’t really know what to expect from myself. I give myself a goal for every race so without knowing what I was capable of I decided my goal to run this race on straight guts, Steve Prefontaine style, and hopefully it would be enough to beat my High School PR. How else was I going to beat a PR I set a long time ago?
I started the Sweetwater 420 5K at a pretty good pace. I had a watch but had not looked at the race course route other than walking past the finish line on my way to the start line. The race started and a group of about 5 of us left the rest of pack.
At about mile 2 there was one runner that I thought was in 1st but I hadn’t seen him since about mile one. There was another runner about 10 seconds ahead of me. There was no one threatening behind me. I ran by a water station and asked, “Am I the third runner?” I thought because I hadn’t seen the first place runner in a while there was a chance I was in second. I thought to myself, ‘If I’m in second then I really need to try to beat this guy. Winning this race would be awesome!’
I was informed that I was in third place, no sense of urgency to make a move to win this race. I had seen the runner in front of me look behind him on the last two turns. I knew he was tired, but so was I. I began thinking to myself, ‘At least I’ll get a place or a trophy for 3rd overall. That’s a respectable finish and something I can be proud of.’ I maintained my distance behind the other runner until we came to the final hill to the finish line. I had parked here so I knew this was the time to make my move…if I really wanted to. I could see the runner ahead of me slowing down so I began to push it up the hill to make my move. Halfway up the hill I saw the runner in front of me take a right. I had thought the finish line was about a 800m straight shot from here! As I rounded the corner at the top of the hill a race volunteer said to me, “He’s only about 10 seconds ahead of you, there’s 800m left, you can get him!” My reaction? A stare of disgust toward him saying, ‘Dude I know. I just ran up a big hill. I’m a little tired and not worried about beating him.’ If you are this volunteer, then I am sorry for my dirty look. Thank you for the cheering me on. It was my fault, I was not in the right state of mind at the time.
I had given up. I was settling for placing in the race rather than doing my personal best. I let someone else beat me. People beat me in things all the time like decorating or cooking, but this runner may not have beaten me; however, I did beat myself (not funny). I don’t know if this other runner was better than me. I didn’t push myself enough to find out. Not only did I cheat myself but I cheated him too. After the race he told me that he runs 5Ks just for the competition, to do something competitive on the weekends. Although he admitted he was very tired at the end, I could have pushed him harder. I could have challenged him.
I stayed about 50 m behind him the whole race. Just watching him run faster than me. Watching and doing nothing about it. I settled for where I was at. Don’t settle for where you are, keep pushing to the finish line.
I also got some negative reinforcement to help me learn my lesson. This race gave cool plaques for the overall male and female finishers as well as the the top finisher in each age group. Of course, me being a male in the fastest age group, 1st place won the overall award and 2nd place was in my age group, leaving me to not be awarded anything. After the race started and the field spread out my goal had also become to place and receive an award. I settled for 3rd overall thinking this would be good enough to be recognized, it wasn’t. I was upset with myself the rest of the day.
So what do you do if you don’t perform to the best of your ability or achieve your goals? First, experience your emotions and let yourself feel what it is like to not accomplish your goals. However, don’t linger too long. Then think practically about the event. You can’t change what has already happend, so don’t dwell on it, but you can change how you react to similar situations next time. Learn from your mistakes and let them motivate you to accomplish your goals…next time.
