Beats Me

I talked about the MapMyRun site yesterday. And about how it's a great tool to keep track of things.

As I venture out on the web and find other "fitness" bloggers, running websites and forums, etc., I'm discovering out how many people seem to really want to tell the whole world how many miles they're putting in. Or how fast they run a 5K. Or how many marathons or half marathons they do.

They seem to really want to keep score and tell everyone.

I don't get it.

I guess I'm just not a "keep track" kind of girl, but I notice that a lot of runners are. They set annual goals for miles per month or miles per year or best times, etc. And they publish them for the world to see. I don't care that much, quite honestly.

Don't get me wrong. It's good to have goals. I just don't get the part where someone includes a list of races and times in an email signature.

I run because I like it, because it makes me feel good and because my body needs it. I don't run so that I can rack up big totals to "top" your number of miles, your fastest speeds or your list of races. I don't need to know what your goals are and I'm pretty sure you don't care about mine. I'm not racing against you. I'm not even racing against me.

I'm racing for me. And I think that's different.

(And, yes, I'm aware of my hypocrisy here. I'm sort of sending a dig to those that brag about their accomplishments when I'm writing a damn blog talking incessantly about losing weight and working out ... and publicly marking my milestones. Pot, kettle, black? But my hope has always been that you find your OWN way by peeking in at my way. That you find encouragement here. If you get nothing else from this blog, I want you to know that if I can do this, ANYONE can do this. However YOU want to do it.)