The Dream Becomes A Goal...

February 22, 2012

As many of you know, I am a huge Dallas Cowboys fan; I was in high school during the stretch of the 90's when they won 3 Super Bowls. Subsiquently, I was a huge Emmitt Smith fan. He said something in an interview that has stuck with me all these years and has really come into play in the last couple weeks. He was talking about his goal to become the NFL's all-time rushing leader and that he had set that goal all the way back in high school. His high school coach had everyone on the team write down their goals for the season at the beginning of each year. "It's a dream until you write it down. Then it's a goal." How great of a statement is that?? There is great power in writing down your dreams; that solidifies it and makes it real. Can you imagine this high school kid dreaming of being the NFL's rushing leader? Once you have that dream down in writing you can start stratigizing how to get there rather than just hoping to get there.

My last post was about two weeks ago, during that time I've been doing two things. First, I've been working on the beginning stages of building up my base miles. I'd like to get the the point that my lower mileage weeks are in the 50 mile range. Second, I've been developing my plan. I turned the dream of a 100 miler into a goal with my last post, that means it was time to start developing the plan to get there. The goal was a 100 miler within three years; that gives me until February 2015. As I began developing the plan that timeframe became much shorter. As I worked through where I've been, where I am, and what I need to do to get where I'm going, I realized I'm probably closer than I thought. I started the plan looking for three main, big steps; a 50 miler, a 100k and then the almighty 100 miler. Here's how it came down:

Hawk 50 Mile, September 2012
Free State 100k, April 2013
Hawk 100 Mile, Sept 2013

So these are the big steps that will get me to the 100 miler in half the original goal time; it's now a year and 7 months. Wow, scary! But I always say that if your goals don't scare you, you need bigger goals.

So there are the big steps to get to the goal, there are obviously MANY smaller steps to get there. First, as I've already said, I want to build up my base miles. The plan is to be running 50-75 miles per week; right now I've been averaging closer to 30-40 miles. It's going to take work to get there, but luckily I love running so I love the idea of running more miles! I will, of course be running quite a few marathons during this period of time, mostly as training runs. I also plan to run as many of the local 50ks that I can so my mind gets used to the idea of being in an Ultra. So far I have one 27 mile race and one 50k so I'd like to get some more Ultras under my belt. I'm lucky enough to have a strong community of trail and Ultra runners in my world, both locally and outside my area, to draw on and friends with similar goals. I know I will be successful by training with, learning from and listening to so many strong, experienced Ultra runners.

I'm also using this quest to continue my goal of using my Ultra running to benefit our military veterans that give us the freedom to pursue our dreams. I am continuing to support Team Red, White & Blue by fundraising to help their cause. I have a goal of raising $1,000 dollars by the time I run my 50 miler at the Hawk 50 on Sept. 8, 2012. This is an amazing organization, so please consider checking out my fundraising page, learning more about what they do and please strongly consider donating to the cause. Any amount, big or small, will help reach my goal and will help improve the lives of wounded veterans returning home from protecting our freedom. Here is a video with a little more information on what Team RWB is all about: