Having a deadline to increase motivation.

I have a love hate relationship with running. If I am honest it is way more hate than love.

I have posted about my running in the past. It is a past littered with races and friends, successes and frustrations.

If you have ever run this will make sense to you. One day you go run and you feel like there is no stopping you - you could run forever. Next day you feel like you might collapse within the first three minutes and there is NO WAY you can ever make it a mile. Running is an evil mistress. 

Truth be told I haven't run much over the past few years. I get inspired and go out for a few weeks only to find a million reasons not to lace up and walk back out that door for months. 

If there is one thing I have learned about myself over the past 41 years...I need to have a goal. No, I don't like the word goal, because it implies an endpoint and I have used that to stop moving forward on more than one occasion. In fact if you look up synonyms for goal you will see words like: end and destination. I want to keep going after this 'goal' and literally run right past it toward something else. And as I learned in a recent leadership training a better way to refer to these moments in your life is Milestones, which is really quite relevant to running. So from now on no more goals for me, just milestones I plan on blowing by and heading to the next one.

Milestones are just that. Stones that marked miles along a road or trail. When you are driving, do you stop at each marker and decided how to proceed? Hell no, you just keep going and going and going.

So why running?

For me the reasons I like running are the same reasons I like weight lifting. Running has tangibles. You lift more weight or do more reps. You run further or faster. As much as I love yoga and bootcamp and other forms of exercise the improvements are less tangible (unless you are doing something measured or evil like pull ups or push ups - yes, you know you are getting better, but most times you don't realize you did two more burpees in the specified time or the like).

To keep me motivated and on schedule I have registered myself for a 10k almost exactly 14 weeks after I decided I was going to run again. My personal live in motivational coach and daily inspirer said, 'Okay. We can do this and travel for this race, but you have to publicly declare that you are going to do this and that you are going to run in with at least a 5 minute PR.' Damn. So I did. And now I have accountability partners that are going to come pace me for this race. Ugh. Okay. 

I have been using an app on my phone Couch to 10k as a training companion and also sprinkling in some lifting and other cross training. I just finished my third week today. It is hard. It hurts. I am getting older and it doesn't get easier. But, I am getting it done...slowly, but always moving forward.
Did I mention this race is huge? I mean Billy Fucilio HHHHUUUUGGGGEEE (my CNY friends will get this reference). Like 30,000 plus runners? Holy hell that is a soooo many runners. Running the Boilermaker in Utica, NY has been my biggest race so far with 13,000 the last time I ran it. 

Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC I AM COMING FOR YOU!

My 2017 milestones:

• Run this race with a 5 minute PR.
• Keep running building back up to half marathon distance and start knocking a few of those bad boys out per year.
• Kick ass.

If you are interested in the Cooper River Bridge run you can find more information here.

So here is to lacing up those shoes and running out that front door to find the beauty and freedom and me time that running provides.

What are your favorite half marathons? I need to start making a list and keep my training and motivation going!!!