Sometimes I go a little overboard on analyzing...

Yes, I'm one of those crazy number people.  Sometimes it gets me in trouble too!  I tend to over analyze everything!  From what or how my husband said something to running!  Today I got an email saying my pictures from the R&R half marathon were now ready to view.  And you know what else they had by that button to view pictures don't ya?  "view results".  I tried to talk myself out of clicking it because I knew once I did that I would be putting my calculator to the numbers.  Surely someone else besides me does this??? So here is what I found:

1.  My finisher results: 
        Finish time 2:04:23
        Overall 2,424/11,553  which equals 22.71% 
        Division (F 45-49 age) 108/1,029 which equals 10.50%
        Gender (Female) 1,190/7,806 which equals 15.24%

So what does this all mean if you aren't a numbers person.  Well it means that out of all the women that ran the half marathon (7,806) I finished in the top 15% and I was in the top 10% of my age group.  So of course this gets me to thinking even deeper.  How many women on average actually finish a half marathon in 2 hours or less?  So I did a little Internet search and we all know that whatever you read on the Internet is the gospel, right? LOL   Anyway I found a pretty good article in runners world on just this subject.  This was the findings:  

~~ While many races will vary with how many half marathoners complete the race under 2 hours, I think this is a good sample. So, if you are a man finishing under 2 hours, you are likely faster than 60% of the men out there. If you are a female, you are likely faster than at least 80% of the women in the race…congrats! ~~

I didn't finish the race under 2 hours but pretty close.  That being the top 15% of the women according to my place (1,190 out of 7,806) among the women that finished. 



However, I will say that someone who is a cherished friend of mine hit the nail on the head when she said, "I don’t ever want to forget about having fun!!  I want to still be running when I am 75 and in order to do that, I need to always remember my love for it and how I fell in love with it."   So let's all try to enjoy our runs and don't be like me and over analyze everything. LOL   I was often called a "worry wart" growing up.  I guess I was destined to go into the accounting field and end up in the analyst department.  So is it bad to look at results? Certainly not.  Just don't get bogged down in the info like I do from time to time.  As I've gotten older, I quickly remind myself to keep calm.

I truly hope you are enjoying your runs (races) and not focusing so much on the "results".  Life's too short.  Take lots of pictures and enjoy the journey.  

Runner thought for the day:

Happy training! D