This was week 137 of my Operation Melt journey that started with my goal to escape obesity and lose over 100 pounds in under a year. I launched the Operation Melt blog as a way to share my journey to both keep myself accountable and to help you as you work to crush your own goals. My hope is that something that I am doing will inspire you to try, will motivate you to keep going and will equip you to succeed in your own journey.

I still get nervous

Happy groundhog day! Hard to believe that February is already here and one-twelfth of 2020 is done. I am definitely making progress with my goals and I hope you are too!

Earlier this week I had an ah-ha moment that the Cap City half marathon is just 12 weeks away. That means I need to be ready to run 13.1 miles by then which is going to require some work because I haven’t had a long run yet in 2020. I haven’t been lazy or slacking off on exercise but I just have chosen not to go outside into the cold for a long run yet. Though I am planning to do so today because the weather is supposed to be really nice.

Something interesting happened though when I had my 12 weeks away ah-ha. When I figured out how close I was to race day I started getting nervous.

Over the past two years I have run 3 organized half marathons and 7 total (including full distance training runs). I have run a 10k. I have run 2 4-milers. I have run probably a dozen or more 5k races. Plus I have completed maybe a hundred or more solo runs of varying distances. I am not concerned about my ability to successfully complete any of these distances including a half marathon.

Despite my confidence in my abilities I still get nervous before any race. I get nervous because my goal is bigger than just finishing the race. My goal is to do my best.

Doing my best in a race doesn’t mean that I want to win or even win my age group. I don’t even have to set a personal record – nearly impossible to set a new record with each race. Sometimes I set race-specific goals or try new things like running at a specific, consistent pace and I intentionally go slower. So doing my best is a standard I set for myself entirely inside my own head and isn’t necessarily something that gets reflected in the race results.

I just want to perform at a level that I walk away proud of at the end. When you think about it this is the best that any of us can hope for and is the key to happiness.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope that my experiences and my tips can help you achieve your own big goals. If we work together we can build a world where goals never die of loneliness!