Little Wins

I've been thinking about this post for a few months. It stemmed from a bad (more like mediocre) half marathon that I raced in Durham back in December. I had some really strong half marathons last year, the fastest being at the Historic Hillsborough Half in 1:55:44. I ran 4 consecutive sub-2 half marathons after posting 3 consecutive over-2 half's the previous year. In Durham, on a pretty hilly course, I posted a 2:02:45 but the majority of the race was a struggle just to keep it around 2 hours. I thought I would pace with hte 2 hour group but could only maintain that for the first 4 miles. I slowly fell back into 9:30 or so pace. However, in the last 2 miles, I raced the others around me including a woman who was keeping up with me on the hills. I finally felt energized to race to the finish and did so finishing ahead of her and some others who I was going head to head with in the final stretch.

Later that day while enjoying a brew with my nephew Shawn who also ran the half in a great time of 1:39:47, I realized that I must find the little wins in all my runs, that the big wins are likely to be few and far between as I continue to age. A big win for me in the half is sub-2 hours, a top 5 finish in my age group, an overall well-run race.  In the full marathon, these days, it might be sub-4:30 or an outside goal of sub-4:20.  Heck, even a finish in the marathon might be considered a big win these days as I approach my 100th marathon this year.

So, what was the little win in Durham? It was how I finished, the last two miles where I put it out there, truly raced on the course set out before me, through to the finish. It was a satisfying finish. I didn't give up at the end although I was having a challenging day. The first 4 miles were a struggle to just maintain a 9 minute pace. Miles 4-11 were holding-on miles to get through the meat of the race. But miles 11 -13.1 were racing miles.

So, each run I do, racing or not, I look for the little wins. At some point what I take from the little wins will end up being a big win. This has likely been true over my running years but more evident now with age. It has certainly been true at the marathon distance.  Achieving finishes at 95 marathons hasn't come easy but I've learned with each and reaching 100 finishes this year will be the big win.

I've run quite a few races this year so far, 3 on trail and 1 on road. Since times are slower on trail runs, I had to look for the little wins in them and there are many. This year I have used trail runs for building strength, not to mention loving being free in the forest with silence, the focus needed, the calmness, and the challenge of hilly, uneven terrain.

I have run two Trivium racing events, the Lakeside Trail Race which I wrote about previously and the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (affectionately known as the WTF) half marathon. Both have been on trail.  I finished the WTF in 2:31 which is about 30-35 minutes off my normal road half marathon. However, the WTF was hilly, had a knee deep stream crossing twice and started at 2:30 in the afternoon in 70 degree weather just after a 10 minute rain deluge. The little win there was my finish related to my age. I realized that there were only 21 runners older than me out of the 266 that finished, however I finished before 122 runners coming in 144th. To me, that is a little win.

Another little win was walking a 10 mile training walk the day after WTF with Cynthia Anne training for her first half marathon coming up on March 19. That little win was seeing her determination to get this done, her excitement to having gone 10 miles and her anticipation to finish all 13.1 in a few weeks. The little wins can come from other people and motivate me just as much. I could cite example after example where this is true including seeing my nephew Shawn return to running and racing after losing 70 pounds. These are big wins for them and little wins for me.

Today I turned 57, now in the middle of my racing age group. I'll continue to find the little wins in myself and others. The same is true in life. It is not always going to be about the big win because they don't come as often as we would like. Its all about the little wins that we look at and say, "yeah, there is something good in that!"