Dear Running of the Pink friends,

Written Goals with a written plan, publicly communicated, works

     Since creating my irrational 70^th birthday plan in December, I have been fairly confident that I could meet the first goal of completing 6.2 miles without stopping. Even though I have not run 6 miles in the last 20 years, I figured that I could jog at some turtle pace and claim I was running. The additional stack of goals, losing 25 pounds, running 11 minute miles, were more at risk.

    

   On Friday June 5^th I decided to jog the actual 10K course since Saturday the original race date, was going to be very windy. (Yes, through all my big talk, I am still the wimp that Ernie Gates, our famous Football coach, introduced to Meier Snell, our Cross Country coach, as a way of saving my life from all those guys that wanted to use me as a tackling dummy, even though I was uniquely qualified as the dummy part).

    

   I expected to do alright, even though I had only run one 5 mile practice, because I had run a number of four milers in the months of getting ready and as we talked you don’t have to practice the full distance if you are consistent at improving the shorter practices. I have always done better in a race, because you have the pressure of other runners and the adrenaline of a contest, so I did not expect too much in non-race conditions. My stretch goal was to run 11 minute miles and my “super secret” goal was to strive for 10s. I think having practiced on hills paid a big dividend because I finished the actual flat ROP course averaging 9:30s for a total 10K time of 59:01. Weighing myself, after the run of course for best results, I was 177, down 27 pounds. So I had my little party by my Covid safe self rather than the 700 of you I was hoping for, but think of what I saved on birthday cake.

    

   Many of you asked that we give your entry fees to the hospital. We gave our full $10,000 match so that their programs would not be shorted. I hope we can make a better plan to celebrate my 71^st birthday, but maybe we should see if we as a team can “Beat the 59:01 for 71”. Thank you for your encouragement of Running of the Pink and the JRMC Mission.

Casey Stoudt