Every Race is an Adventure!

Super dad! I felt bad for my kids because both parent pretty much passed out or checked out until4 this afternoon!

Nicely done, well under 6 hours and relatively pain free (a marathon is never completely pain free, right?)

Way to go Paul! It was great to see you at the start. I thought you were kidding me when you said you would trade the knee brace over if you needed to but you weren't! I am excited to see what you will bring to St. George!

nice job out there today. looks like you met your goals for this one!

Congrats on another marathon finish and on being one of just a handful of 5 yr finishers! I'm proud of you for resisting any urge to run faster than what you've trained for. I think this sets you up for a great year and 3:30-ish finishes down the road. Hope I get a chance to catch you at a race sometime and run some miles. It kinda funny I don't miss WBR that much but I do miss the group runs up/down Provo canyon and the old Novell noon-run gang.

Very impressive how you stayed with the plan of running smart due to the low training miles and prior injuries. I'm sure that's not easy since you've run much faster marathons in the past.

You know, Terry, it wasn't as hard as you might think to run much slower than I have in the past. You're comment has led me to wonder why, which has led to some Paul-osophizing:

I'm beginning to discover that there is a lot of peace in what I call the Scotty (from Star Trek) principle, sometimes referred to as under promise and over deliver. For me, it is more lowering expectations thereby increasing the possibility of meeting or exceeding them.

This does not imply any measure of slacking off. It doesn't mean I put in any less effort. It refers to setting more reasonable expectations, and adjusting them along the way as circumstances change.

For example, in past relay races I tended to set aggressive pace goals for my legs, and I always seemed to fall just a little short. Others set more reasonable goals and exceeded them. I felt a little disappointed about letting the team down and got "that's okay, you were just a little under" comments while the others were elated and got "wow, you picked up 2 minutes" comments. The difference wasn't in the effort or in the performance, it was in the expectations.

This principle applies to the stock market, too, but I won't go there.

It definitely applies to life, including work, self, and family. Expecting more from myself, my wife, or my children than is reasonable leads to frustration for everyone involved. As I continue to learn to adjust expectations and focus on the positive, my enjoyment of life grows.

Tom & Kim: Consider your races on Saturday. Tom, you ran tough in tough conditions and earned an award in your age division and said, "all miles were stinky" and sounded pretty bummed. Kim, you ran one of your slower marathons and said, "I had a great time!" Expectations.

This "lower expectations" approach may not be good for an habitual slacker, but for someone who tends to fret and worry too much, like me (and Tom?), it's brought an increased measure of enjoyment and peace to my life.

Each race, I try to pull out the best that is in me. Each day, I try to do the best I can. Life can be big, and hard, and complex, and I'm weak and simple. I can't do everything, but if I ask, and listen, God will tell me what to do today, and help me to do it, and help me feel peace, love, and joy.

Maybe we can all learn a little from Cookie Monster: "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me."

Last year the WBR team I was on (South Jordan Slackers) had a team philosophy, "under promise, over deliver". We all put in times on the spreadsheet we thought we could beat. Our team finished the race almost an hour ahead of projection and everyone had a great time because everyone on the team beat at least 2 of the 3 legs goals.