When I went for Parkrun yesterday, I hadn’t run much all week and still was feeling sluggish. I also hadn’t eaten anything all of Friday. So, I planned to keep it steady and hoped to finish in around 25 mins.
I felt good on the warmup jog, so by the time the run started, was hoping to finish under 25 mins.
When the timers announced the time after the first lap, I was surprised to hear 11:35. That was unexpectedly fast! Maybe I’d gone too fast on the first lap. I’d probably suffer on the second lap and run it in maybe 12:30. I was hoping I’d make it 12:24 on the second, and scrape in under 24 mins. I hadn’t run sub-24 since late June, so getting a time starting with 23 would be a good boost.
I finished the run, met the dogs and the humans, and went for the cool-down jog. When we were back at the car, I tried to estimate my actual run time by subtracting the warm-up and cool-down times. It seemed to be about 23:23, two seconds faster than my fastest time this year. However I’d been late starting my watch so I didn’t know what the official recorded time was.
When I got the official result a few hours later, it said 23:30.
It was my second fastest time at Guildford Parkrun this year, and the 3rd fastest ever. So I am surprised to discover that I was disappointed at that result!
I went in planning to finish in around ~25 mins. After warm-up, I reset that expectation to sub-25. After first lap, I was hoping to sneak in under 24 mins. I finished in 23:30, and was disappointed because I wasn’t another 6 seconds faster :/
How quickly and easily does our brain reset expectations?!