Tonight I was going to finish my blog about last September's race at the Headlands 100, but i decided to write about how I felt after the race instead for right now.
At the end if the event, like many of the trail races I've ran, I was given a ceramic coaster to take home to remember the race. I literally have a stack of these at home. I think they are really cool race awards.
When I finished the race Maureen Brooks walked me over to a table where a bunch of ceramic coasters were laid out. Usually the coasters are all made from very nice flawless pieces of ceramic tiles. Maureen told me that this year they didn't pick all the nice looking tiles, they just selected the tiles at random and had them printed. I was suppose to pick the one the best reflected my race experience at the event.
The first thing I did was look at the table and I saw a bunch of tiles that all had their own uniqueness. Some were very nice looking and some were very flawed. I pick up the nicest one and started to walk away... then I went back to the table and set it back down. I scanned the table again and picked a new coaster.
The one I picked up was the most damaged looking one I can find, because at the time that's how I felt about myself and the run.
I held the new coaster in my hand. It's dented, scratched, chipped, and rough around the edges. I smiled at Maureen and thanked her for putting on another awesome event.
That weekend I didn't hit the time goal I was aiming for, and I was pretty focused on feeling down on myself for that. Then my friend Chris mentioned that I did run my fastest time ever at that event. I was so busy being upset about not running under 26 hours like I was aiming for, I totally disregarded the fact that I ran a personal best time at that race.
I look at this coaster a lot, it's on my nightstand so I see it everyday. There are times when I look at the coaster and see all it's flaws, and there are times where I look at it and see all it's perfections.
I was on a run today with my friend Megan. While on our run we talked about races, being disappointed with our finishing times at events we've ran, and things of that nature.
I think that a lot of times, as runners, we are constantly holding ourselves to a standard higher than most people hold us up to. We're constantly trying to figure out how to improve our times, train better, run faster, etc. It can be a very stressful hobby. Sometimes we focus so much on our flaws after our races, we fail to see our accomplishments. For me personally, I know that I'm constantly my hardest critic, and this isn't just with running, this is with life in general.
There are times were we have to learn not to be so critical about ourselves and not to beat ourselves up if we don't hit every goal we make. It's human to fail from time to time, to stumble along the way, and to feel a little sad when things don't go as planned. The important thing is that we pick ourselves back up, get refocused on reaching our goal, and not give up.
Until next time...
KEEP RUNNING!!!!
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