I can’t quite pinpoint the moment it happened, but somewhere between the Runner’s World Half Marathon and the Richmond Marathon, I became so intent on cutting back on running that the whole aspect of having fun went away.
In the past 3 weeks, I’ve run less, I’ve refrained from blogging much, I haven’t read many blogs and besides leading #RunChat over the weekend, I haven’t had much to say on Twitter.
And it’s been refreshing.
Not having to focus on a big goal for a few weeks has helped me reset my mind and has allowed me to enjoy my runs more. Aside from the knee pain I mentioned, I am feeling much more calm about running these days.
I’ll post more soon about my opportunity to run Disney, but I’m already approaching that with a “just have fun” approach. I’m not going to pile on a lot of miles to get to that race day.
I’m instead focusing on more cross training and strength training, as well as getting off a few post-marathon and Thanksgiving pounds. I don’t want, or need, a goal for that race.
In these past few weeks I’ve thought a lot about 2013 and really not setting goals. These past couple of years have had some great moments, but I think I’m ready to just step back and bit and not have “A” goals that eat up so much of my focus on every run.
This doesn’t mean I won’t train for races – of course I will – but I’m done consuming months of my time for the shot at an “A” goal in a fall marathon.
This is kind of my long-winded way of saying that no matter what happens in January at Disney, I’m done with “26.2” for a while. It was my intent all along. But that was supposed to be after a strong Richmond Marathon and running 3:40 something and having a celebratory good-bye to the distance.
What happened that day doesn’t matter anymore, and I think I’m better because of that. I’m really looking forward to closing out an otherwise great year by just having fun.
Real David H. 
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