Milestones

When you first start running, hitting new milestones is a regular occurence.  The first 30 minutes without stopping to walk, the first 5K run in 30 minutes, the first 10K, the first run longer than 10K, the first race, each feels like a big accomplishment and pushes you to go further and set your sights on the next marker down the road.

When I started marathon training for the first time last year, I had never run farther than a half marathon, so almost every weekend, I hit a new milestone, with a new longest run ever.  I would be excited to set out to conquer 23K, 25K, 28K, and even the big, bad 20 miler.  Completing my first marathon, was a huge milestone.  It didn't matter what my time was.  I. Finished. A. Marathon.  That was good enough.  That was AWESOME.

Training through the winter was a milestone for me this year, because I had previously always taken the colder, snowier, icier months off of running, but because it was dragged out over 3 4 5 6 months, it didn't feel like a milestone.  And at the end of that, I was so disappointed in my second marathon time, that I had a hard time remembering that finishing my second marathon was an accomplishment in itself.

I was beginning to think that I either had to qualify for Boston or run an Ultra in order to hit another milestone.  Neither seemed very likely any time soon, and I was feeling a bit discouraged.  Then I logged into Tall Mom's 1000 mile Google doc to update my miles for last week, and I realized that I had less than 3 miles to go to 500 miles in 2011. 

Yesterday I hit 500 miles for 2011.  Half way to 1000 before 2011 is half done!  That's the first time I've done that.

What's your next milestone?