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My race schedule for the next few weeks is quite full. With fall finally here, I’m going to take advantage of my current fitness and race a lot over the next month or two.

Here is my schedule:

9/12 -Revere Moves 5k. Haven’t raced in about 6 weeks, so I’m going to pace this one conservatively and see what I’ve got. Would like to run under 20:30.

9/18-9/19 – Reach the Beach Relay. Decided to do this at the last minute when a friend’s team needed one last person. Luckily I’ve been running good mileage all summer. I haven’t done any specific training for this type of race, but I’m sure I’ll be fine. I have no idea what kind of pace I will run; looking mostly to run comfortably and have a good time.

9/26 – Northeastern Big Dog 5k
10/3 – Samaritans 5k
I don’t yet know what to expect from these. I’ll have a clearer idea after my race this Saturday.

10/18 – Baystate Half Marathon. Haven’t specifically trained for this either, though my long run all summer has been 12 miles. I will probably run this a little conservatively since I’m not specifically trained for it. Would love to run under 1:40, but I’m not sure it’s in the cards.

A friend from a running forum has this as his mantra: “Runners run.” The quote comes from a movie about Billy Mills, a Native American runner and Olympic gold medalist in the 10,000 m in 1964. In the movie, Billy is at a low point in his running career and has stopped training. His coach asks him why he isn’t running, and Billy says, “I just don’t feel like I can run right now.” His coach replies, “A runner doesn’t decide when he can and can’t run! A runner runs!”

The message is that you can make a conscious decision about whether or not to be a runner, but once you’ve made that decision to be a runner, there’s no more deciding to do. You run. That’s what runners do.

Why do I run? I’ve been thinking about this lately. I feel like I’m hitting the point of diminishing returns with my training. I’m running roughly 40% more mileage than I was last year and doing track workouts every week, yet I will have a hard time taking even a minute off my 5k time from last year. I may yet get into the 19s, but I very much doubt I will ever get into the 18s. I don’t think I will ever qualify for Boston. I’m probably never going to win a race or even place overall (maybe in my age group, if it’s small enough).

Why do I run? Because runners run.