I’m bragging.

This past Sunday I ran the Princeton Half Marathon for the third year in a row. 

I was proud of a few things: 

• I had organized the Happy Trails Running Team and five of our members completed the race.

• Also, I inspired my son, my niece, and my nephew to all compete, so it was an enjoyable family affair. It was the first time my son had run that distance, and he took a lot of pride in his performance.

• Between my team and myself, we raised more than $1,400 for a good cause: HiTops, a Princeton organization supporting teens in the areas of sexuality, sexual identity and gender identity.

But most of all I was proud of my own performance:  I ran the race 15 minutes faster than last year. That’s a huge boost in performance. 

I don’t even know how I did it. I don’t train that hard. And I hadn’t run that fast in any of my training runs all year. Somehow, though, on race day I was able to let it fly.

There must be some sort of race-day magic. Due perhaps to extra adrenaline?

But my improved performance is also due to the consistency with which I run. I’ve been running regularly now for three years and clearly it’s paid off.

The body is predictable: if you do the work, you get the results.