In what will be no shock to any of you, I am in for the 2016 Star Wars Rebel Challenge! I got online right at 9am to register and was done by 9:05. Registration was super easy. If any of you followed along, you know that the Rebel Challenge took around two hours. The Kid Races sold out first. The Star Wars 5K and 10K were next. I’m not sure exactly of the order. However, they sold out pretty close to each other. A few minutes later, the Rebel Challenge was sold out as well. However, as of writing this blog post, the Star Wars Half Marathon is not sold out.

I think that runDisney has reached saturation on their events at Disneyland. Last year, the Rebel Challenge sold out much quicker. So too did the Dumbo Double Dare and Avengers Half Marathon (as a matter of fact, the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon is still open for registration). The Tinker Bell Half Marathon took a while to sell out as well. If you’re someone who is not ready to register the minute registrations open, this is fantastic news. Even though the races are finally taking a little longer to sell out, the runDisney races still sell out quicker than other race series. However, I think they’ve reached a maximum amount of races for the Disneyland Resort.

I’m totally looking forward to running this race again. The Star Wars Half Marathon is still my absolute favorite half marathon! By the way, runDisney is selling (for a limited time) “In Training” shirts, here, for all the distances of the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend. These shirts are way too tempting. Come on runDisney. You already got around $350 out of me. Now shirts? Not fair.

Registering for races is not all that’s happening right now in my life. I’m also in the beginning of training for the 2015 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m reading through Meb for Mortals as part of my continuing education on long distance running. I’m taking the book slowly so I can make sure I’m understanding what I’ve read. After all, if there are golden nuggets of information that could help me in my long distance running, I want to remember it. The book has been a wonderful read so far. All the positive reviews I’ve read have proven to be true.

Since a lot of people signed up for the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend on yesterday, others are in the beginning of training for the Disneyland Half Marathon Weekend, or maybe are training for any number of races, I thought I’d share some golden nuggets from chapter 1 – Think Like Meb…

The first part of the chapter talks about setting goals. Meb says, “Running can accommodate all sorts of goals – running a certain number of times a week, running enough to maintain a good weight, finishing a half-marathon without walking , and so on. Whatever motivates you to regularly get out the door gets my stamp of approval.”  I love this quote because it says a about Meb. He does understand that not everyone reading the book will be an elite runner.

After talking about why we should set goals, Meb defines what makes a good goal. Here are the bullet points:

• A good goal has personal meaning. – This seems pretty self-explanatory. If the goal you’ve set has no personal meaning, it’s pretty easy to let yourself off the hook. Meb stresses that your goal should be one that YOU come up with. Goals that are thrust upon you by others will only lead to failure.
• A good goal is specific. – There is a difference between saying that I want to run a 5K 30 seconds faster than my PR than saying I want to run well in my upcoming 5K race. Running well is a pretty generic term. You’ll accomplish more if you set a specific goal.
• A good goal is challenging but realistic.  – This is where I think a lot of us get tripped up. We set goals based on what we see others doing and not based on our performance. I could set a goal of running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in under 5 hours. However, given what my training has told me, that’s not realistic. My goal for Chicago is a sub 6 hour marathon, which is realistic. As I trained for the Los Angeles Marathon, my training told me that it could happen. If not for the extreme heat, who knows what I would have done?
• A good goal has a time element. – Having a date to accomplish your goal gives you the sense of urgency you’ll need to accomplish your goal. Setting a time helps you to think though your plan to get there. You can go from the big goal to finding the small steps that you’ll need to climb to get there. In the book, Meb talks about the importance of keeping a training log. Each week you can look back and reflect on how you did and evaluate whether or not you’re making progress towards your big goal.

Hard work is how you improve yourself to reach that goal…That hard work doesn’t just happen once you set your goal. That comes about only through commitment.

Anyone can come up with a good goal. The difference between those that only come up with big dreams and those that accomplish those big dreams is how committed you are to your goals. Anyone that has pursued a running related goal knows this all too well. As Meb says….

Situations requiring a decision that will affect your progress come up with all the time: when you run, whom you run with, where you run; what you eat, when you eat, how much you will eat; how much you sleep; even how you sit at work. Being a committed runner means being aware of these situations and more often than not making a good choice.

Wow! Think about that for a moment…all  that stuff. One of my downfalls in training usually happens due to lack of consideration for everything involved. It’s one thing to come up with a plan on how much to run each day and how often to run. However, I’ve had more than enough missed runs due to lack of planning for them. If I want to run 13 miles, like I will this weekend, I need to know where I’ll run those 13 miles. I’ll need to know the weather beforehand to plan on what I’ll wear. If it’s hot outside and really sunny, I’ll probably not be in a black, long-sleeved shirt and running pants. If it’s cold, I won’t want to wear a tank top. I’ll need to know how much fuel and which kinds of fuel to have with me while I run.

Aiming for success tests your character. Commitment is the sign that you welcome that test.

Truth! Some days, I wonder why I signed up for a marathon or all those half marathons. It would be so much easier to run 5K’s and 10K’s. One thing I’ve learned is that, just because you sign up for a race, doesn’t mean that you’ll actually do all the work required to accomplish the goal of finishing or finishing in a particular time. Motivation and consistency are huge. Your commitment will help you get through all those times when your motivation and consistency are tested.

Sometimes I wish that it was more simple. You get this idea that you’ll run a marathon and that will be all it takes to get you out the door every day, run all the miles you need to run, do all the cross training, eat right, and sleep right. However, every single day and every single run is a new test. If you want to get to the Hall of Fame, you’ve got to do the work.

What are your goals? Have you ever had the wonderful experience of setting a goal and accomplishing it? What were the keys to your success?