I love to run. For me, it is exercise, solitude, soul care, prayer time, thinking time, learning time, me time, all rolled into an hour or so, three times a week. Like many runners, I’m also incredibly goal oriented, so I sign up for half marathons several times a year. And I have a long term goal of running a half in all 50 states. I like to say that I don’t pay gym fees, I pay race fees. (Are runners goal oriented or are goal oriented people drawn to running?) Recently, I found myself in a race hole. One race ended without another one on the books anytime soon. Through it, I learned some important lessons about having ongoing maintenance goals as well as big deadline goals and it’s having an impact on my pastoral work life as well.