Double dippin’ with tonight’s entry.  I was inspired to write this by a runner I have never met and know in name only.  He posts his logs over at the Ndorfnz site under the handle TimMeyer, so I assume his name is Tim Meyer.  He has been working all winter long through the North South Dakota weather, indoors and outdoors, shoveling, walking to work, doing workouts on holidays.  All in order to run a sub 16:00 5k. Which in these parts is really solid for a non-collegiate runner.  Just yesterday he entered an indoor at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA.  His finishing time:  15:55.  So for tonight’s topic AND to continue my list of my favorite things about running I am talking about PERSONAL RECORDS!!!

We all start running for different reasons.  Inspiration, weight loss, crisis, helping someone in need, challenge, drunken bet, competition, talent, or for maybe no reason at all. Regardless, most of us at some point time begin to become infatuated with the ticking numbers on the race side clock or on our wrists.  We live and die by the little digital lines creating numbers that relentlessly go up and up like a hot air balloon with a deranged operator.  Our training logs record overall times and splits of workouts.  We assign ourselves by pace at big races.  We dig down hard the last few meters of a race to be rewarded by throwing up and have a second or two faster time.  Why?  Most of us are pursuing a PR for a distance (personal record or best for those nOObs out there).

Now not every race is a “PRable” race.  Weather or injuries or life or course difficulty tend to get in the way.  But we strive for it anyway.  On those rare occasions where things come together;  the weather, the course, the competition, your training plan, your diet, your race plan, a little luck you cross the finish line and look up and see a number you have never seen before.  It is frozen forever in some database to be looked up or on a piece of paper mailed to you as a congratulations.  More importantly, it is frozen in your memory to be brought for a story during long runs or over beers with friends as you play down the day you ran as fast as you ever have.

PRs represent more than just a fast time.  They represent the work you put in and the fact that hard efforts do indeed pay off in life, not always, but sometimes.  Man, are those sometimes sweet, almost addictive.  PRs are tough, bittersweet occasions as well.  You celebrate it, but then the realization comes in that you may never again in your life run that fast.  That sucks. Sure, you will likely pursue harder or different training to chase that time on a clock again.  But odds are really, really against you.  Some much stuff had to line up right for it to happen.  That is what makes chasing PRs so scary.  But really, it should be inspiring.

I am not sure who said it, maybe John L. Parker of Once A Runner fame, but he said (to paraphrase) that running is a process of ascending.  Of making yourself better, whatever that might mean.  If that means chasing a time on a clock, so be it.  How many people in this world take a risk like that.  Pulling back the curtain of your potential and seeing what is back there, now that is scary.  Every one of us who runs with the purpose of seeing how fast we can go has faced this moment, do I hold back or do I go for it? Some races we choose wisely, others we don’t.  When all is said and done after crossing the finish line we can talk about we went the way we did, or tell ourselves and friends something else to justify it.  Only you know the real reason.   But going after a time and trying to see what YOU are made of, what lies within you, now that is something to be reckoned with, inspired by, and proud of.