Can You Have Goals Without Deadlines?

 We’re actually living in a time when plans can’t be dictated by deadlines because now more than ever before we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. So some people wonder why they should even bother to set goals. My rationale for still setting goals is that in these trying times it motivates us to look ahead for when times are better. 

One of the first things I did was to make it a point to get off Lynx Hollow Road. In my last blog I wrote a post about running and walking on Lynx Hollow Road. It’s been a blessing to have it as a place to run but one reason I wanted to move to Oregon was because there are so many beautiful and diverse places to run. For that reason I decided that as long as it was medically safe to do so I was going to get back on the trails. 

I gave serious thought to doing a socially distanced trail race and decided to drive to the race site and walk the course to see if I could do it okay. It was challenging but I believed it was doable. 

It was a beautiful course and I planned to run it but after realizing that it would be impossible to maintain space when being passed, which would happen often 😂, or passing a runner coming the opposite direction I decided the smart thing was to not run it. I’ll wait for a course without single track to get back out there. 

I completed the Virtual Run the Missouri Challenge in August 9th and started the Amerithon Challenge the next day. Having something like that on the calendar is a perfect example of goals without deadlines. It’ll take me over two years to complete the Amerithon. The Missouri challenge was 371 miles and took 70 days. Amerithon is 3,521 miles. Almost exactly 10 times farther. 

Getting back out on several of the trails around the area has been a good motivation to try to get out almost every day. I say almost because there comes a point where the only smart thing to do is take a rest day. 

And of course it wouldn’t be a story from the Wild Ivy Ranch without at least one animal story. Donna’s horse Carly got injured a couple of times in a two week period and on the second the vet had to come out. While working on the most recent wound an artery was nicked and the blood just flowed out in a stream. The vet finally got that stopped with a tight wrap and then gave her medication including two antibiotics. She had an allergic reaction to the penicillin that was scary but came through it okay. 

And finally Cat decided a good place to hang out was on the roof of my trailer. I was laying in bed reading, heard a noise and looked up to see this in my vent.