Goal

Goal: something that you are trying to do or achieve.

What was I trying to achieve in running? PBs – absolutely yes. A secret desire to try for Masters in the future? Perhaps yes. But was that the goal, the desire?

The greatest accomplishment I could hope for in this sport is consistency. That I can do this now and that I would continue to run ahead in and into the future.

It is wonderful to take part in races, to get that PB, but the journey to a race, the training far surpasses any other achievement. For in my case – the everyday amateur runner – that is simply against oneself, against one’s own previous time. Bettering that but to what end? After all its personal best.

I would at this point rather not think of that and keep furthering the training in itself and see where I go from here. The intervals, the long runs, the easy treadmill runs (like today) are process and the process is like a sturdy tree in its routine, in its predictability. What is glacial is the outcome (if any) and the way that routine shows a result.

The result might be official with a race time, but really the true outcome of routine is the addictiveness of the routine in itself. In that the journey in itself is complete.

Of course such musings, useless or not, are the so-called benefits of the armchair amateur enthusiast – certainly for me – and neither applicable to any Agniveer hopeful nor a professional runner.

The etymology of the word in itself is quite ironic in its possible origins as obstacle or barrier.

Far from it, the goal to simply run, sets me free.