I am proud of my race times. A lot of training (and a little luck) went into achieving those times, and I’m still constantly working to improve on them. They don’t define me though. I don’t hang my self-worth on whether or not I sub-4 in the marathon (I haven’t, but that is a goal of mine), or get a PR in a race. I strive for goal times, and I hope to achieve them, but I do not lose a piece of myself if I don’t hit that time. Why? Because a race time is just a number. It doesn’t come with a little asterisk that says*
*41-year-old female, 5’6.5″ and 133 pounds, running since March 2011, Graves’ Disease, three children, recovering from injury, raced some serious hills and fought the wind (does that sound like some Fit Fun Mom you know?), or
*dealt with typhoon-like rain in Sacramento for CIM 2012 (“365 days of awesome” blog), or
*was the victim of an unavoidable bike crash at IMAZ (“Cook Train Eat Race” blog), or
*got up with the baby three times during the night before the race (any new-ish mother, anywhere).
Those aren’t excuses. I’m saying that it’s useless to tie your self-worth to a race time because there’s never going to be another person out there just like you, racing under conditions just like yours.
Think about it another way. Who is more “worthy” of admiration after completing a marathon?
1. The 23-year-old female who’s been running for 5 years and comes in at around 3 hours.
2. The 41-year-old female who’s been running for 1.5 years and comes in at around 4 hours (*cough cough*).
3. The 35-year-old with type 2 diabetes who’s lost 30 pounds in training and comes in around 5 hours.
I’d argue they are equally worthy of admiration. They each ran 26.2 miles. They each put in a tremendous amount of effort to achieve those times. They each faced different challenges on race day.
I race against me, myself and I, and sometimes it’s still not a fair race. When you sign up in November for a race in June, who knows what will happen in between now and then? Injury? Family crisis? Weather? Perfect conditions? Crash? Take your satisfaction from checking off each workout in the training plan. Consider any race finish the icing on the cake. And if you do happen to PR? We know it was hard-fought and well-earned and should be celebrated.
So true, sometimes it seems like some people are never totally happy with their race time or distance.
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Running (and swimming and biking) make me feel happy and I’m not interested in beating myself up over times!
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Great sentiments. I’ve recently learned to judge my own races using different criteria than speed (well, at least from just speed alone) and I feel great for it.
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Come to think of it, I do the same thing. My criteria would be: is it clear that I trained well for the race (put in the time, practiced for the hilly conditions or the ocean swim or whatever), did I fuel properly (and what should I do differently), did I like the course and the support (would I do that particular race again). Mainly I judge how the race went to see how I can improve next time!
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It is true that race times cannot define you as they are even impossible to compare for the same race from year to year as there are so many different variables.
The problem for me is that I have goals of qualifying for Vegas and Kona so race times do mean something to me, but simultaneously they may not be my best times to get to qualifying. For example, if the race is extremely hot and humid (in which I perform very well in) and those around me do not I may put up a time that is not great for me but in comparison to the rest of the field I look great.
I do know that when the race is over I do not go over it repeatedly as there is nothing I can do to change it. I played the ‘what-if’ game in that IMAZ race report your reference for about a week but realized why? What can I do to change that? The answer was: nothing. So I have moved on and have begun preparing for IMTX in May.
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I think you’ve identified the distinction — race times *are* important. We care about them, we strive for big goals like qualifying for Vegas and Kona. At the same time, they don’t tell the full story.
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How about the 15k that had sun at the start, rain at mile three, snow at mile six (after a 600ft elevation gain), and drizzle on the way back down to the finish? š
During my most recent 13.1 (one year ago), I almost PRd and met my under 2:30 goal, had I not had to stand in line for the bathroom…
There’s a 70yo woman who I see at many local races, and I’m so much more impressed by her effort she’s put in over the past years than by the 22yo who runs the same distance in 1/3 of the time as her.
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That 15k sounds like quite the experience! And I want to be that 70yo woman someday. š
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It was the Shamrock Run 2012. Weather can be quite horrible in mid March š But 15k finishers get a bottle opener medal, so I “have” to run it every year.
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Bottle opener medal = cool! I love a functional medal. I have a luggage tag from HITS Palm Springs 2011. The organizers didn’t give that out again in 2012 though so my husband didn’t get one.
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Great post! I think many people (including me) focus on race times, and that is not even what the sport is about. Yes, it is great to have goals and motivation, however, we should not put ourselves down if we do not meet them every time. I loved this article! You never know people’s situations or what they go through prior to the race, and this is exactly why race times should not reflect or define you as a person. Thanks again for sharing this!
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