Tag: goals

Another RAK half marathon – 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Yesterday the RAK half marathon impressively lived up to being the world’s fastest half marathon. Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya set a new world record for the women’s half marathon, in 65:06. I heard she was hunched over after the finish looking like she was about to vomit. No history books will mention that.

The weather conditions were absolutely perfect for running. Even before the race the announcer said there are no excuses for not running a personal best time today. I objected to the people around me, “This guy clearly doesn’t know me!”

I started the day with a thought that 1:40 would be a decent finish time, given the training I’ve done. In the end, I finished in a fair 1:39:59 .. And this time was with one toilet stop. If it wasn’t for that huge wee, I may have also finished the run in around 1hr and 5 minutes.

Soon after the start I was alongside one of Dubai Creek Striders’s most charismatic characters, and wellness gurus.  A lot of his recent social media posts have been relating the ill-effects of sugar on us. I facetiously told him to “Leave my sugar alone” .. then nervously overtook him – with an immediate worry that he’s probably right, and my diet will be my demise in this race and he and the rest of the group would overtake me with much cheer.

A single glimpse of something can lead me to think about it for huge stretches of time. Along the way I passed a guy wearing an Iron Man body suit. I pondered, at what point in a race would I deploy the jets. I don’t know how many kilometres I had completed at that point, but I was pretty sure I’d put on the jets right there and then.

That was a more enjoyable thought than when I passed a shirt slogan, “There is no finish line”.  I know their marketing folks are inspiring an ongoing lifestyle, and promoting a continuing journey of fitness. I know that now. At the time, I just muttered “Bugger”.

One distance milestone I do remember was passing the 12km marker. I remember this because the lady next to me said out loud “Single figures”. She didn’t seem to be running with anybody else. So maybe she was talking to us. I thought about it, then thought about it some more. It could have been 5 seconds later I figured it out, and apologetically verified back to her “Ah, [single figures] kilometres remaining!”

I wore the race shirt they provided us. Lots do. Why not, it’s the newest in my wardrobe. At one point I noticed a guy to my right was wearing not only the shirt, but also the same Nike “look-at-me” running shorts I had. He may have seen me looking him up and down, so I shared that we could be twins. He thankfully laughed. Then we both decided to split up before the camera people just ahead could take a cute picture of us together.

It was funny to hear Kat, the default voice of the Runkeeper app, coming from someone else’s smart phone. The guy was getting a comprehensive update on his time, distance, average pace, and I was curious if bladder levels would one day become part of the story. I told the guy I thought the Runkeeper lady only talked to me. But he was quick to explain. That app is important company he has during his away-time running.  It gets him through the many times he’s in the bad books for being anti-social, having to go to bed early & run in the mornings. Then he put up his hands and shrugged, “What else can we do when we love such a crazy pastime as running?” I agreed and wished him a lovely run.

In the final 4-5kms I maintained a pace between slouching off and feeling like I was about to vomit. After giving High 5s to my family (who was leaning inappropriately out over the fence) with 200 metres remaining, I sprinted to cross the finish line – with one second to spare.

I look forward to doing it again next year.

2015 goals, SMASHED!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

At the start of the year I created two goals.

One was a regimented goal to run 100kms per month, 1200kms over the year. It was a hopeful attempt to maintain a better level of fitness rather than getting into prime shape for a marathon now and again.
Last year I set a goal to run 1400kms in the year. It was a pretty random number except that it was the year 2014 – and I wondered if I could challenge myself each year to increase the figure accordingly.
Nope. I failed 1400, by quite a margin.

So this year, I was more realistic and wanted to be slightly less arbitrary. 100kms in a month isn’t too far for a runner, but covering this distance each month for a year is beyond anything I’ve done before. To put the overall distance into perspective, 1200kms is the distance between Brisbane and Canberra (a 13 hour drive).
Things began well, like each year’s goals generally do.
Though just before summer, without any warning, my job vanished before my eyes. I was seriously considering a return home to Australia.

Unsurprisingly my running was hugely impacted. I managed maybe just one bitter-filled run per week.
I added a median line to the total kilometres graph which my running app plots. Its trajectory showed the 100kms per month I should cover. In July, I think you can actually see my kilometre progress crying in depression as it failed to keep up with the plan.
2015 running goal
The kilometres dropped so far that by the end of June I had run only about a quarter of my year long goal.

Fortunately the cliche did apply, ‘When one door closes, another one opens’. In two months I started with a new employer, and gave myself a month to settle before returning to my running goal with a vengeance.

I started a new routine, upping the kilometres in quite a big way.  It wasn’t easy to keep up the momentum with everything that was happening in life.  Though having gone through such a big challenge on the job front, there was enough new-found determination to keep me unwavering from making the time.

In fact, I only missed two sessions in the next four months of training.

I did the math and planned the distances for each and every run. With two months to go, it still looked unclear whether I’d reach the goal or not.

As I ticked over the runs in the final few weeks I could definitely see the finish line.  It was just a matter of continuing the focus.  I clearly made it, after a monster 231kms logged in December. It was the longest I’ve ever run in a month, to make it the longest I have ever run in a year.

 

The other goal I set for myself this year was to read 12 books in the year. Supposedly that’s one book per month.

With all the reading I do at work, I sadly don’t feel like reading for pleasure. Hence the attempt to bring back the habit.

Having these two goals could always make for an interesting finish, as it gets close to the final deadline. I can imagine frantically reading while running the last few kilometres in late December.

But this year I did have an old trick up my sleeve, given my new daily commute.

It could be argued listening to audio books is not reading. My thought is it definitely is.  I listen and interpret the words, just as I would if I had read them.  I plotted the progress against the goal also, but this trajectory was more easy to manage.

2015 reading goal

 

Goodreads, where I plotted my books kept a nice record of the books I read as part of the year’s challenge:  https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/12648231-ryan-brinkworth. And all the books I’ve read with reviews are on the site as well, https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12648231-ryan-brinkworth?shelf=read

 

2015 turned out to be a good year.

It’s one I can always reflect on as the first time I smashed my goals, despite a pretty major challenge along the way.