The Across the Bay 10K goes over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and is quickly becoming one of my all-time favorite races. I’ve run it several times and you can’t beat the view! And everyone from the volunteers to the police officers on the course to the participants themselves are so happy and excited to be there.

As many of you know, 2016 has been a tough year for me mentally and physically and several months ago, it was unclear where my training and fitness level would be at this point. But there was no way I was missing this race…even if I had to walk the whole thing.

I wrote myself a training plan that I was confident would get me across the finish line as long as I could stick to it. I did…mostly!

Along with a new training plan, I decided on a new goal. Just finish. That’s it. No time goal. At all. Not even a vague “I hope to finish around an hour” kind of goal. I didn’t care if I ran, walked or crawled. Just finish.

This is not like me. I always have SOME sort of goal in mind. Vague or otherwise. I don’t always share my goals publicly but I always have them. Even the first time I ever ran a marathon and had absolutely no idea what to expect or what I was doing and had bronchitis 2 weeks before the race, I still had a time goal in my head.

But not this time. I decided to just let it go and do whatever I needed to do to finish the race. And it was great! First, I had rock-solid support from two very important people that would make sure I finished no matter what. Second, not worrying about a goal allowed me to run at a pace that felt good for me at my current fitness level. I didn’t try to push it. I wasn’t checking my GPS for pace or distance. I just ran. I sped up when I felt good and slowed down when I needed to. I was worried going into the race because of my health concerns but this turned out to be one of the best races I’ve run in a really long time.

I certainly haven’t kicked the “goal” habit. Believe me, I’ve already got goals in mind for the next two races on my calendar but, I might have to “Just finish” more often! It’s a good feeling.

Happy Exercising!

P.S. Look for my Complete 10K Training Plan ebook on sale soon!

P.P.S. Comment and let me know what kind of goals you’ve set for yourself.