Competitive!?!

Time and again I surprise myself when I realize how competitive I can be. If you knew me, you probably wouldn't believe it if I were to tell you how competitive I am, but my competitive self is there and I've been seeing him deep within me more and more times in the past year. On the outside, I think I can say that I would appear quite timid and perhaps even shy. But deep inside, I've caught myself comparing and measuring up to other people in certain ways. Of course, I try not to let it get to my head.

The same can be said about my experience in running. The beauty of running is that I think it is both competitive and non-competitive. You can measure yourself against other people in your age group, gender, and experience in running. At the same time, you can set goals for yourself and try to beat them and achieve your own personal victories. Many of the blogs I've read talk about how running is more of a sport wherein one tries to surpass one's limits. That's great and all and I do believe that if a runner doesn't have this perspective, he or she will always be disappointed that there is always a faster runner somewhere out there.

Just to illustrate, at my first road race, I'd check out the runners on the first kilometer and benchmark my pace with theirs. At others, my goal would be to finish not so far behind certain people. Recently, I would have secret goals of finishing ahead of those same people.

My point is that I just want to share that it does happen. But before you judge me, I want to make it clear that I still don't believe that finishing ahead of another makes me a better runner. It's just a competitive nature that shows itself from time to time.