Goal accountability terrifies me.
My personal goal accountability isn’t something I want to write about as putting myself out there leaves no room to back out. But if you’re reading this, I’m now exposed and have to do everything possible to achieve my marathon running goal.
Why did I decide to write about goal accountability?
I was sitting in a restaurant at BlueWaters Dubai enjoying food, drinks and reading, considering what to write for my next post.
I was reading The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma and was up to the goals section, which got me thinking about mine.
One of my goals from my last post is running a marathon in under 4 hours this year, which I had planned to share my story after completion.
But then a terrifying thought hit me.
If I write about my marathon running journey before completion, that’s going to force me to achieve it.
So going public with my goals became the inspiration to write this post.
Now that I had a plan, I went back to reading. Then to lock it in, being publically accountable to progress goals was on the very next page. The universe works in mysterious ways, and now there was no backing out.
So having never run a marathon, I’m going to share my journey hoping to inspire others.
Goal accountability wasn’t the first step on my progress journey.
This year started with me running for fun. On my bucket list was running a marathon (42km) but I had no idea how to accomplish it.
I needed some direction.
The first step I took was getting some additional motivation.
Motivation.
Extra motivation came when I started tracking my runs. I achieved this by using an application which shares run times amongst friends called Strava. At the time I was running every second day and posting them to the app and giving and receiving kudos – the same as a Facebook like – and enjoying being part of a group.
With this extra motivation and great weather in Dubai, I was able to do long-distance runs easily.
Leading to February when I ran a half marathon (21km) nonstop. I was ecstatic. That is the longest distance I had ever done, and I made it past the 17km barrier I hit years ago.
For my next long run in March, I wanted to do a scenic one, so I decided to run to The Palm. Pedestrian access was limited in spots, but the scenery was amazing. I completed the run, which ended up being another ½ marathon, and my time had improved.
Everything was going well, but I needed some more direction.
Breaking down my ultimate goal.
I was happy with my progress and wanted some stepping stones towards my big marathon goal. I decided to add in some smaller distance goals, with a quicker pace as follows:
| Goal | |
| 5km | <22:30m |
| 10km | <45m |
| 21km | <1h:45m |
| 42km | <4h:00m |
Now I had some smaller targets to aim for a well as my ultimate goal. Around the same time, I noticed an organised group of runners.
Time to join a running group.
While running, I noticed a large group of runners called: Run for a Purpose (R4AP). When speaking with them, they were very welcoming, and I found out that their weekly runs started right near where I live, perfect.
So next week I joined them for their run. It was challenging as it was a lot of up and down hills, but it was great to be part of a group.
On my next group run, I wanted to extend my max distance to 25km. The other runners were doing shorter distances, so I joined them initially and planned to continue after. The run was great, talking to the others certainly took my mind off running.
The others finished up at 10km, and I continued. Unfortunately, I didn’t make 25km. I decided to stop at 23km as I was in agony.
My previous pessimistic self would have considered this a failure, but I was becoming more optimistic and had just run a new longest distance of 23km. I was happy with myself.
Running in circles
Then the Coronavirus pandemic escalated and the lockdown started. The only run I could do was boringly running in circles in the basement.
When the lockdown finished, I went straight back to running outside, which was much more enjoyable.
In April I ran a new longest record of 25km. Every time I reached a new maximum distance, it felt so amazing. I wanted to continue doing even further runs but unfortunately haven’t yet.
Then I started to go downhill.
But then the heat in Dubai had started creeping up. Not to mention running with a mask made it difficult to breathe. So my running training had reduced, and long-distance running was becoming more difficult.
Overall though my fitness had improved by doing the Insanity workout, I mentioned in my 40kg weight loss journey
To keep me motivated I needed a win, so I targeted my 5km in under 22:30 goal.
Time to achieve a goal.
When going for my goal, I wanted to give myself the best chance of success, so I decided to run earlier in the morning before it got too hot. The mask restrictions had also reduced and weren’t required while doing extensive exercise.
Time to go for it. Pushing myself, I was able to hit my goal and ran the 5km in 22:12.
I was happy with myself. I had accomplished my first running goal. The first step towards my marathon goal completed.
Updating a goal and set some dates.
But I decided to set another stretch goal, and reduced 5km to under 20mins. I also importantly set deadlines for the others as follows:
| Goal | Goal date | Best | Completed | |
| 19:57 | 25th August | |||
| 44:23 | 17th August | |||
| 21km | <1h:45m | 15th September | ||
| 42km | <4h:00m | 30th September |
So this was terrifying as I’ve publically mentioned my stretch goals and I’ve never been close to running these distances so quickly. And the ultimate goal of running my first marathon won’t be easy.
Having posted this, I need to follow through and reach my targets or be publically shamed, so goal accountability is a great motivation to get moving. So I’m going for it.
