The great running record reset

Regular readers will know that I am a runner and have been one pretty much my entire life. From a little 5K jaunt to dust off the cobwebs to a full marathon to push my body to its limits and beyond – I love running.

But I am now a half-century old, and I think that means it’s time to acknowledge my running accomplishments from the first quarter century of my life will never again be achievable. And with the continual decline in my kidney function and general “I am getting older” facts of life, I must acknowledge that it will become increasingly more difficult to improve on my times by any great margin.

And so, I have decided to mark the start of my quinquagenarian decade with a running record reset.

Yes, from today onwards, I will have new benchmarks for my running times* across all distances. That means that from my first kilometre and first mile to my first half or full marathon, I will be hitting new “personal bests”. I will then work to continually best those bests until I do another running record reset when I hit my sexagenarian decade in ten years**.

This is not the first time I’ve done a reset. My last reset was in my 30s when Paul got into running which meant I was doing more running. At that time, I had to do a reset because I knew that I would never, ever, ever hit my running times from my years in cross country as a teenager. (A 17.31-minute 5K was impressive then, it is all but impossible now.)

Of course, much like the children who keep score when playing sports that “don’t keep score”, I will be aware of my pre-50s records, and I will be extra thrilled when I best those times – even though I have told myself I’m working from a new run record. Because I am human. And a human who competes against herself regularly***.

I am looking forward to getting outside for some good runs in the coming weeks to set new benchmarks. And then, I will look forward to smashing those times as the year progresses.

New decade, new goalposts. Let’s run!

* Only road times count as treadmill runs tend to be faster because it’s a false environment.
** I may reset earlier, or I may never reset again. I sometimes wonder if my next reset will be a post-transplant reset which could be during by quinquagenarian or sexagenarian decades. Time will tell.
*** I stick to self-competition these days (I’ve never “competed” outside of organised school sports) and will always aim to improve on my previous abilities – in running and in life more generally.