What is your Personal Best?

Make sure you stop by Just Romantic Suspense today where I'm guest blogging!

This past weekend I completed my third half marathon. (My first where it wasn't pouring rain!) It was also Long Suffering's first 10k (6.2 miles) and he rocked his race!

Many, if not most, people who "race" are not elite athletes. We're not going to win any races. Heck, we're not even going to come near winning our age groups. But most of us are competing....with ourselves. We're all striving to beat our previous times and attain a Personal Record. Or, as they say in the UK, a Personal Best.

The term "Personal Best" appeals to me a lot more. I'm constantly struggling to achieve a Personal Best in many areas of my life, not just racing. For example: I want each of my consecutive books to be my "personal best". 

But this weekend was about a race. 13.1 miles. I went into it knowing that I couldn't possibly beat my personal record. I'm very, very, VERY slow....so the bar is set very, very, VERY low, but there was no way I was going to do it. I've been plagued by injuries, nothing in my life has been going right, and I was stressed out.

Yet, I lined up at the starting line...the very back of the starting line. The VERY BACK...behind the other THREE THOUSAND other racers. (Long Suffering who watched the start said I was very last.) I lined up because I subscribe to the:

Dead Last Finish

Beats Did Not Finish

Which Greatly Trumps Did Not Start

way of thinking. (Again, it's one of those things that applies to the rest of my life.)

So I started dead last, but I started.

Right after the Mile Four marker (and had already watched the faster athletes pass me on a loop) I passed this sign, which, considering I think of myself as a tortoise, I found funny enough to stop and snap:

And I kept on trudging on....and a miraculous thing started happening. I started passing a few people. 

I kept doing that and at about mile 8 I realized that I was on pace to meet the pace I'd done in my first half marathon (we won't talk about the disaster that was last year's race). So I picked up the pace a bit...and passed a few more people. And I kept doing that, despite the fact I was ready to amputate my left foot. My injury is the equivalent of a pinched nerve...so every step was agony.

And somehow, through determination (or stubbornness) I finished the race. And I achieved a Personal Best by about 14 minutes...which probably doesn't sound like much to you, but meant the world to me.

Here's my unflattering, hot-tired-sweaty-pained-red-faced finisher's photo:

And here are our finisher's medals:

And here we are showered and happy (and in our dorky, matching finisher's shirts)!

Now it's time to think about my next goal.

What Personal Bests are you chasing after? What sorts of "impossible" dreams have you, or are you chasing?