Mission Accomplished

Glenn and Derek ran their second 5K today.  They set 3 goals for themselves:

1.  Finish the race
2.  Finish the race without walking
3.  Beat their time from the Turkey Day 5K in November

They missed one little detail, however.  When they ran the 5K back in November, Derek had just finished up soccer season where he spent 3 days a week running for almost an hour straight.  As Glenn and Derek started training for this race a couple of weeks ago, it became painfully obvious that Derek’s running capacity has dwindled somewhat during the 5 months since soccer finished.

Yesterday as we sat down to dinner, Glenn told Derek he thought they should drop the last goal and just feel proud of themselves if they could run the whole 3 miles.  And so, this morning they set off (somewhere in that huge group of people).

They came sprinting across the finish line 32 minutes and 1 second later (they beat both of those guys next to them by a long shot, by the way).

We came home and checked their time for the Turkey Day 5K.  It was a very close 32 minutes and 15 seconds!  They beat their time by 14 seconds.  Derek pulled me aside this afternoon and told me with pride in his voice that when Glenn mentioned last night that he thought they should drop their goal, in his mind he decided he was going to try for it anyway. 

Derek said he remembered me telling him about 2 weeks ago (during a homework lecture I thought he was ignoring) that if he was going to set a goal he needed to make it happen.  He needed to just decide to do what it takes and then do it.  He was so proud of himself that he made it happen!

Later this afternoon while practicing the piano, he said enthusiastically, “I think most people think that advice only applies to large goals like beating your race time, but it applies to small goals too like having a good attitude while practicing the piano.”

What a good boy!  I’m thrilled some of my brilliant advice is sinking in!  And I’m so proud of Glenn and Derek for finishing the race, doing it without walking, and even beating their time from November!

Derek and Glenn finished 346 and 347 out of  831 participants.  Derek was 13th in his age group, Glenn was 66th.  Most importantly, they beat the people who really mattered: themselves!

(They ran out of shirts, so Glenn will get his in the mail, but they still look good!)Way to go, you two!