Running isn’t something I started to enjoy until my twenties. For a while, it was my main source of exercise. I’ve run numerous 5k and 10k races, two half marathons and one full marathon. However, in the last few months I haven’t really been running much. I still go on walks three to four times a week and some days, if the mood hits me, I jog for a few minutes. (Let me fill you in on a little secret – the mood doesn’t hit me all that often!)

So, why does all this matter? Why am I dedicating an entire blog post to this subject?

Well, back in September I turned the big 4 – 0 and I decided that I was going to run at least 20, 5k races before my 41st birthday. For the first two months, I knocked it out of the park and completed four races – easy peasy. Since then, I have run ZERO races!

Now here we are, on the cusp of the fifth month of this year and only four more months to my 41st birthday. If I am going to hit my goal, I need to be running four races per month!

This means a run a weekend and quite frankly our budget (races cost money) isn’t going to make this possible. We’ve got two littles and our youngest is needing some extra support right now so we have some unplanned, yet necessary, expenses for the next few months that are more important that me running races. I won’t lie that I am frustrated about this because I pride myself on setting goals and reaching them; however, I’ve realized that instead of just throwing in the towel and giving up on my goal, I just need to change up my plan a little.

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The reality is I can still log miles just like I am running a 5k each weekend and I can do it without paying a ton in race fees. Sure, I won’t end up with 20 different medals but I will add a couple to my collection. My plan is to use the site Yes.Fit which offers virtual races at longer distances that you can complete over the course of several months.

I’ve figured out that I need to get in at least 51.2 miles that can be classified as race miles. There is an “Adventures of Pinocchio” event that is 50.3 miles and only $29. I know, this is still under my needed miles, but I have a local race in July that I am running with one of my girlfriends for the third time. It is a 5k so that 3.2 plus the 50.3 will put me at 53.5 miles! And to make it feel like I am actually running races, I am committed to one run each week being a 5k distance of 3.2. (I’ll even post this one each week on my Instagram account to really up the accountability piece.)

So, while it isn’t exactly what I had planned for my year it is still going to get me the miles I promised myself in my 40th year. Ultimately, it is the promise that is important and what truly matters. Of course, I won’t have all the medals to go along with those many miles but I will know that I am worth it and have kept my promise to the most important person – ME!

You’ve got to be stubborn about keeping the promise to yourself when it comes to reaching your goals but you can be flexible about how you get there. Life is complicated and sometimes plans don’t work out the way we planned. A change of course doesn’t mean you need to quit, it just means you are going to get to the same end goal in a slightly (or very) different way.