New frontiers

One of my favorite running quotes by the late great Jim Fixx is "Running is not about trying to do something that no one else has done. It's about doing what anyone can do but very few choose to."

I love this quote because it drags my running into context. I am not doing anything amazing or incredible yet I see and hear constant evidence that I am inspiring others to run. This is an amazing thing in itself, to be responsible for people (who are in some cases only in distant contact with me) choosing to do something that nudges them outside their comfort zone and more importantly, away from the unhealthy danger zone I spent way to long lolling about like a beached whale in.

It keeps me running to know others are following me.

Anyway what got my thoughts on tis track is today's lunchtime run. I did something amazing (in me context). Actually I did 2 amazing things. Today's run was 5k and for the very first time every k was done in under 5 minutes. This gave me a grand total of 23 minutes and 47 seconds. This is 101 seconds faster than I have ever run 5ks in.

The second amazing thing I did was to run the first of these 5ks in 4 minutes and 4 seconds. This is an achievement that's hard to describe. In the context of the entire run it's belittled by the fact that every k was under 5 minutes, and alone it's no big deal because it was the first k and it's not hard to run fagots for one k especially the first one. However in the bigger picture I ran an awesome first k and still managed to keep the hammer down for the rest of the run.

For me it's important to have well defined goals, and post running the Melbourne marathon I have(had) 4.
- 5k under 25 mins
- 10k under 50 mins
- 1/2 marathon under 2 hours
- shave 1 hour off my marathon (under 4 hours would be great)

So in 3 weeks I have knocked one off the list.

I'm running a 1/2 marathon in Marysville on Sunday but I've been warned that due to the hills it's not a course for PBs. I'm not going to try for an amazing time on this one...just cruise and enjoy running in the bush.