Trading Happiness for Better Chip-Times?

Are you trading happiness for better chip-times?

If you are a marathoner or other endurance runner or walker, there is a risk that you may be trading some of your happiness for the sake of a better chip-time.

Of course, faster times in races can lead to more happiness. I acknowledge that.

I suppose that faster times could have no effect on your happiness.

What I want to ask you, though, is whether you are becoming less happy as you pursue better chip-times.

It’s really easy to fall prey to pursuit of the almighty chip-time.

• You forego racing with a friend, so that you can finish ever so slightly ahead of him or her.
• You forego a dinner with family, so that you can cram one more speed workout into your calendar before your big race.
• You speed ahead of a buddy who is having trouble during a training run or walk, so that you can be certain that you “nail” your training session at just the right pace.
• You are so focused on checking your GPS wrist-unit during your race that you never look a single spectator in the eyes.
• Even though you see your friends and family along the finish-line chute, you barely acknowledge them as you barrel toward the finish line.

There are two ironies in these actions.

1. You very likely eventually will be less happy, as you realize what you have traded.
2. Happiness affects performance, I believe, so taking time to support or acknowledge others, for example, actually can lower your chip time!

I am not advising you not to go after your goals.

I believe that humans are goal-seeking animals and that the pursuit and achievement of goals is one of our greatest sources of happiness.

What I am advising is that you become very clear about the trade-offs that you are making as you pursue better chip-times.

Let me give you two examples.

Two weeks ago, I walked the Texas Half Marathon with my wife. I could have used the 5:1 method and run/walked it, as I often do in endurance races. But, neither of us were feeling great following Christmas-week head colds, and I had already planned to enjoy New Year’s Day by walking it with her. With less than a mile to go, she encouraged me to run to the finish line. Although my 3:32:42.53 chip-time is nothing to brag about as a runner, I have fonder memories of walking with my wife and a couple of our walker friends than I would have in terms of a finishing time.

Two days ago, I ran/walked the Chevron Houston Marathon with four 5:1-method training friends. Before we stepped out the door of the convention center into all that cold and wind and rain to line up for the start of the race, we asked one another how fast we would like to go. I responded that a 4:55 marathon was my dream. We agreed to go for a low-eleven-minutes-per-mile pace. I ended up with a 5:26:30 after failing at the 13-mile flag to stay up with the four others. However, I finished that race with several happy memories:

1. One of us DID finish in just under five hours. (Yay, Lisa!)
2. Two of us finished in just over five hours and within a second of one another — at 5:03:36 and 5:03:37. (Way to go, Juli and Patti!)
3. Having lost my interval timer just before the start of the race, I met at mile 14 a woman from Indianapolis who had one and was using the 3:1 method. She had left the Houston area in 1989, and we had a great conversation all the way to mile 20, at which point she pulled away from me as my knees and ankles began to lock up from the cold.
4. I walked most of the final six miles to the beat of my step beeper, which let me turn in mile splits in the 13- and 14-minute range!
5. The many spectators and volunteers who stood in that cold, wind, and rain without the heat benefit of racing were very inspiring.
6. I got to watch as the excited young daughters of one of my racing partners shouted joyfully as she ran up to them along the course. And, I got to watch as the excited young sons of another racing partner did the same thing for her a mile or two later. Each pair of children was visibly proud of their mother, and each scene almost made me cry with joy.

Sure, I would love to have run a sub-5-hour marathon last Sunday, but I am pleased with the 5:26:30, given the weather and my persisting head cold, and I have a lot of happy memories from that race.

What do YOU think?

Am I off-base, or do you agree with my advice? Either way, please leave a comment below, and post this article to your favorite social-media site. Thanks!