There are awards?

An interesting thought came up in a conversation today.

In my 5K race on Saturday, I placed 662 out of 779 people. I was 51 out of 63 in my age division.

This got me to thinking...why do runners race?

I can't speak for all runners, but I can speak for myself (and we'll use the term 'runner' loosely here). I entered this race not to win the overall race or to win one of the three awards given in my age division. I entered this race to REACH A GOAL. I entered to cross it off my bucket list. I entered it as part of the overall goal to lose weight.

But most of all, I entered it to know that I could race a 5K.

So often, we hear that people only enter a competition to win. And when they don't win, they're disappointed.

Of course you're disappointed - you had no other reason to enter the race than to win. And when you come in 662 out of 779, you're going to be extremely disappointed. When you come in 4 out of 779, you'll be disappointed because you didn't receive a little trophy.

But if you enter the race to finish; if you enter it to reach a personal goal; if you enter it to take a step towards a bigger goal, then there is NO WAY you can be disappointed if you finish. And the best part? Even if you didn't finish, you still tried and made the effort. And I bet you learned something from it.

For all of you who don't think you can do something, or think that since you're not going to win, you're not going to play, I urge you to consider to think again. I told myself for years that I wasn't a runner and I finished my first 5K this past weekend.

Show the world what you're made of, and go out there and do it. Learn from it. And do it better the next time.

"No, maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is just take everything he's got. But to beat me, he's going to have to kill me. And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me. And to do that, he's got to be willing to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know." - Rocky IV

Not to sound cliche...

Something I've learned in the past week or so - and I know it sounds cliche, but here goes...

"You get out of it what you put into it."

I've decided that I want to have good experiences - in life, at work, at home. Life is too short to bitch and moan and whine. Everyone has complaints, but it's how you handle them that matters. Make a constructive comment, then move on to how to make it better. I know that I have trouble doing this sometimes, but I'm going to try, darn it.

Another new goal of mine is to get to know as many people as I can. There are so many interesting people out there, I think it's worth my time to get to know some of them.

And now it's time to continue the week by crossing more things off my to do list. Wish me luck.


Currently Reading: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris