How to Set Great Goals for Race Day

If you are a runner, you know that we live in a world of PB’s. For those of you who may not know, PB means personal best. We runners love to keep track of our times for specific race distances and then try to beat them to measure our progress. But really, if all we do race after race is chase PB’s, then I guarantee we will not be as happy as we could be. Each race is an accomplishment of its own. And, if you run different courses, there are so many variables that can impact your time. My personal best for a half marathon is 1 hour 40 minutes and 44 seconds. The course was fairly flat and the weather was cold, so I didn’t have to battle heat. Today, I ran the same distance with 1500 feet of climbing steep hills and finished in 2 hours and 14 minutes. Was that a “bad” run? No, in fact, runs like that may prepare me to beat my PB later due to all of that hill work!

So how do you set good goals for each race? I believe that you should have multiple tiers of S.M.A.R.T. goals. The acronym S.M.A.R.T. means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Let’s say that I am running a half marathon, I will set goals like these:

  1. Have fun and smile no matter what, remember; you PAID to do this!
  2. Run within myself and finish. Period.
  3. Achieve my PB for THIS course.
  4. Achieve my PB for THIS distance.
  5. Place top ten in my age group.

The way that I look at it, if I have trained well and start the race relatively healthy, the first three goals are all very achievable. Sure, as discussed, different variables could impact them, heat, rain, injury, etc. but they are all well within reach. Even if I do not hit a PB for the course, I can achieve the first two goals as long as I do not suffer a serious injury or completely bonk! So I can smile at the end of the race knowing I went the distance! Honestly, even if I do get the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish), I’ll be happy because I am out there taking a risk and living life! Failure simply means you are pushing your boundaries, and that is never a bad thing.

Those last two goals are “stretch goals”. They may or may not be achievable on a particular day, but when I have one of those magical days where I get one or both of them, I REALLY enjoy myself. I walk around with my head in the clouds for a couple of days and just soak in the moment, because nothing feels better then doing the work and then getting a superb result! But, these are not goals that if I do not hit them, will really bother me. It’s all upside with no downside.

Trust me, if you fashion your goals in this format, you will enjoy your running much more. Having goals such as these gives you the opportunity to enjoy every race that you run. And at the end of the day, isn’t that the most important thing? The next time someone asks “How did you do?” start with “I had a great time and I finished the race feeling pretty good!” Let them wiggle a minute or two and then share your time with them!

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