My Yearly Running Goal: I Ran 1000 KM in 2021! Not Today Blog 47
This year was going to be the last year I would focus on running before I had to focus on my rowing preparation for my Atlantic crossing in 2023. After reaching my 2020 running goal of 750 km, I knew had to set a new yearly running goal and smash it.
Goal Setting
In 2019, I ran my first marathon. That same year I discovered the “Yearly Running Goal” feature in the Adidas Running app. A simple but powerful statistic. By the time I had recovered from the marathon, I started calculating what was possible until the end of the year. I set my goal to 700 kilometres.
Whether it’s achieving an annual/monthly/weekly distance or a specific time in a race. Running is a sport where you can set clear goals and know exactly whether you’ve been successful or not. I went and achieved my 2019 running goal and added 50 km for 2020.
I started 2020 less enthusiastic about running. In July, I still had 500 km to go. But that year I saw one of my friends smashing it every month. She had months where she ran 130+ kilometres. I knew she could hit 1000 kilometres by the end of the year if she pushed through. Seeing her chasing it was my motivation to complete my 750 km. At the end of the year, she broke the 1000 kilometres, and as a celebration, I sent her a custom-made award. (Btw, it’s a great gift idea to send self-made awards to your friends).
A thing stops being impossible the moment one of your friends achieves it.
Goal Adjustment
700 km in 2019, 750 km in 2020. 800 km for 2021 would be the next logical goal. So, I kicked off this year setting my yearly running goal on the app to 800.
Running has been my rock for the past three years. There’s nothing a 10K at the end of the week couldn’t fix. With the newfound momentum, I ticked off my weekly runs. At the same time, I had my nutrition under control for the first time in forever and lost 10 kgs bodyweight. Running felt a lot easier on my knees.
In July this year, I realised that I had already tracked 495 km. I knew from my friend Eli’s previous year that hitting 1000 km in one year was possible. So, I decided to adjust my goal to 1000 km.
I broke my goal down into daily kilometres and set daily Google Calendar events saying “Run 3K”. Each day I would receive a reminder email with the subject line “Run 3K”, that I would only mark as read once I had completed a 3K run. It didn’t matter if I ran a 3K that day or if I did 2 x 3K the next day.
Yearly Running Goal Achieved
By September, I was confident that I could actually hit my target. I started talking about it and my friends were getting excited for me. They would check in with me from time to time and ask me how many more kilometres I had left to go before the end of the year. This gave me an extra boost of motivation and helped me stay accountable.
And I did it! I ran 1000 kilometres in one year.
What’s weird is that it felt so easy compared to last year’s 750 kilometres.
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore.’ The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.
Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Why Not Today?
Yes, we get better the more continuous work we put into things. More importantly, I think that we become more tolerant of pain. We learn to accept pain as something that will always be there. The pain of doing something over and over until you hit your goal. It is our attitude towards it that makes all the difference.
By setting goals and breaking them down into many tiny efforts we grow.
Why not set yourself a goal for 2022? Well, why not today?
D
1 thought on “My Yearly Running Goal: I Ran 1000 KM in 2021! Not Today Blog 47”