How I Set My Long Term Running Goals

If you’ve followed me on social media at all, you’ll know that I have one over-riding long term goal with my running:

Run until I’m 80.

That may seem like a tall order to many, but I have a great example of a woman who continued her sport, tennis, until she was 80. Today, I ran for her.

The Original Plan

With a 50 mile week behind me and one more on deck next week, this week was all about cutback. That meant less miles each day, including my Saturday long-run. Each of these runs accumulated on top of each other to get to my goal of running the Chicago marathon.

However, I didn’t do today’s 12-mile long run for me.

This run was for Grandmother, aka Babs, who would have been 98 years old today.

The Long-Term Goal Inspiration

A formidable woman in her own right, Grandmother played tennis until she was 80 years old and championed my running like no one else.

When I first moved to Washington in 2010, she would introduce me to her friends and say, “Channing runs marathons!” With that prideful little toss of her hair and smile a grandmother serves up best.

At the time I had only ever run as far as a 10k, but to her I ran marathons. I tried numerous times to clarify the distance I actually ran vs what she thought I ran to no avail.

Maybe she knew this marathon life was in the cards for me years before I did 🤔

Fast forward 9 years, I crossed the finish line of my first HALF marathon thinking, “Well Babs, I finally proved you at least *half* right.”

So today on her birthday, I ran 13.1 miles. For her.

And I’ll continue to train so I can run until I’m 80. For me.

Week 14: 32 miles down ✔️ Next week: back up to 50!