New Year Goal #2 - The Failure that Made Me Smile

My New Year Goals

1. Sub 1:50 21k
2. Sub 4hr 42k
3. Sub 6hr Half Iron Man

So just to recap, I set out three major goal for this year as you can see above. I hit goal #1 last February during the Condura Marathon with a time of 1:46. Last Sunday I went on to try and reach my goal #2.

Well, lets start out this entry by pointing out the elephant in the room, and this is that I failed to reach my goal #2. I clocked in officially at 4:05. This was 5 minutes away from a sub 4hr finish. But to be honest, I was targeting a time around 3:55, so I was really 10 minutes off from my target time. Now, I would be lying if I told you I wasn't dissapointed, I actually am and if the circumstance were better, I knew I could have nagged my target time or even better.

But then, the circumstances weren't there and things didn't go my way, and as bizarre as this may sound, this is actually what has made me smile. Failing is always connoted with getting depressed and disheartened, people seemingly give up after not getting what they worked so hard for. What I have learned though in my short time in this sport is that failure is just another step to your success. Each time I fail, it just makes me more hungry and lights up a fire inside of me to work that much harder to get it. Hey if its that hard than it must be that good right?

So this is a celebration of what we have learned during that marathon. 42 kilometers was a long way to go and I loved each single part of it. From the pain, excitement, and joy, this will always be a very memorable experience for me.