2012 Running Goals - Experiential Running

You know the type.  Runner's World Magazine dedicates one page per issue to a photo of someone running up a majestic mountain or along a deserted trail.  The runners always appear at peace, as if running were as effortless as breathing.  This is my favorite part of the magazine.  It's also my goal for 2012.  To run as many of these kinds of runs as I can. 

Since high school I've always considered myself a runner.  More often than not, I was a runner on sabbatical.  For the last two years I've integrated running into my daily life.  I spent a year just focused on making running a routine part of life. Then this year I ran distances I've never run before, completing both a marathon and a half marathon.  I've also moved past the dogma against run/walks and do both full running and run/walks.  Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to where I wanted to go from here.


A couple of months ago, I had a thought.  Why not run the "Rave Run"?  Why not do it often?  Why not make it my goal?  So here it is my "Race" plan for 2012 (which I'm starting a few months early). 

Goal One:  Increase my running frequency.  Pretty much this entire year I've focused on a three run week or less.  Typically Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.  I'm hoping to increase the amount to about 5-6 times a week, for at least a mile each run.

Goal Two:  In my last post, I mentioned I was going to stop documenting my times.  I've become obsessed, as many runners do, with the clock.  "I was a few seconds slower today than yesterday!  What happened?"  Unless I'm running a race, I don't plan to keep track of times.  Instead, I'm going to a more subjective form to evaluate my efforts.  More...experiential. I'll elaborate more on this in a future post, but for now. It's bye bye watch.

Goal Three:  Find unusual/historical/intellectual/personal locations to run and document each one as an event.  I want to choose locations and document my experience with them.  Why did I choose this location, how was the run, what did I experience, what were the pros/cons of it. Photos will be taken and shared on here. 

This might sound vague, so let me elaborate.  I live close to DC, yet I've never run the National Mall just to run it.  Both times I've run there were during races. I'd like to run the entire mall. Maybe stopping at a few of the memorials and experience them through my running self. 

Another example might be to follow in the footsteps of another. Experience what they experienced.  Not long ago, I watched Rocky for the first time in years.  Philly is only a few hours away.  I'm thinking of trying to retrace the famous montage that ends with Rocky running up the steps of a museum and throwing his hands in the air.  It might sound corny, but then again, what might you be thinking when you reach the top?  I'd like to find out for myself.

My work takes me on frequent (although not so lately) business trips throughout the Eastern United States. Each trip offers me a chance to run somewhere different.  I plan to find something unique about each location and experience it through a run. 

So that's it.  My 2012 Running Plan - Experiential Running.  I'll probably add in some races here and there too, most likely the Army Ten Miler.