Running Goals for 2026

Holy cow! I am glad 2025 is over. It was not a good year for me and my running. Excited to start 2026 fresh, healthy, and happy. No injuries (except a nagging heel/Achilles soreness). Here is a link to my 2025 running goals. I failed all five of them. Need to think about new goals for 2026. Reasonable but challenging. And motivating. I'd like to return in one year and see that I accomplished all of my goals. And feel proud of those achievements. OK, here are my running goals for 2026:

1. Hit 25 Completed Parkruns. I have 14 total so far, so only 11 more 5K parkruns to hit the 25 milestone. You can buy a shirt after that achievement! One a month seems doable. In the back of my head I think I could hit 50. But maybe 50 should be a goal for 2027. One step at a time. One parkrun at a time. My local parkrun is at Morrissey park in Champaign, IL. Every Saturday at 9am. Free and fun. 

2. Run at least one ultramarathon. We have the "Free Ultra Quadfecta" that encompasses 4 trail ultras. All free. All local. I can and will finish one of them. Maybe two. Three? All 4 for the grand slam? I guess it is officially a Quadfecta! Similar to the parkruns, I'll take this goal one step at a time. One ultra in 2026. Maybe a slam in 2027.

3. Run at least 1,200 miles. I always like to have a distance goal in my year plan. I only ran 670 miles in 2025. Sad. This year I can knock off 100 miles/month. 1,200/year. Easy peasy! That will be almost double 2025 miles. Nice!

4. Break 22:00 for a 5K. My last 5K (one week ago) was 22:58. My best in 2025 was 22:28. I can drop 30 seconds off my best time in 2025. One minute off my most recent attempt. Hard, but doable! Here comes 21:59 for 2026. 

5. Join a local running club and do one of their races. I used to be very involved with local running. I was a member of more than one club, board member and president of Second Wind Running Club, and I started and directed 2 races that are still going (Buffalo Trace Trail Race and Clinton Lake 30-miler). Local clubs pissed me off and I quit them. It's been a few years so I should give them a try again. Join and run a race. Easy, right? Maybe I'll make a new friend. 

6. Go to the gym at least 50 times. I can hit the gym once a week, right? Weights, cross training, even a treadmill run. It's doable. I set 50 as the benchmark so I can have 2 full weeks of nothing and still hit my goal. Of course, I can go twice/week and have even more time off and still hit 50 minimum gym visits.

Those are my goals for 2026. Notably missing is a BQ qualifying time (need 3:50). That would be nice, but do not want to pressure myself. If the year goes well, I might try for a BQ time in September. No promises.