It's hard to sneak up on yourself, but worth it.

It's not really as paradoxical as it sounds. It isn't your whole selfout sneaking up on your whole self. It's more like a conspiracy in which some parts of yourself collude against other parts of yourself. Or, better yet, a theater piece: the part being fooled knows its being fooled, but lets it happen anyway.

I was reminded of the joys of sneaking up on my goals when I was out for a long run in the drenching rain and snow yesterday. The half-way point was a coffee shop. We'd taken a back route that I'd only been on once before, which I remembered taking us directly into the lap of luxury. I was timing my catastrophic indigestion to hit the moment we arrived at safety. But, lo! The back road popped out only about halfway to the coffee shop. The whole time I had been basing my survival on a delusion, and it worked great! The coffee shop was just around the corner for twice as long as it should have been, and as a result, I was able to keep up the threshold-run pace, and made it to the washroom in the nick of time.

Pretty much every single time I have broken my all-time running distance record, it has been by a sneak attack. I am "officially" only going to go long-ish. But a part of my mind knows its a good opportunity to break my all-time record. It makes sure to tuck a few extra energy bars into my pockets or hydration pack. There's nothing to be scared of: there's no commitment to doing something hard. There's just the opportunity, and the preparation to make use of it. But guess what: at kilometer 25, I don't have to run a marathon. I just have to run another five, to get to a nice round 30. And then at 30, might as well make it 35. And at that point, 42 is just around the corner, so it'd be a waste not to run the full distance. At which point fifty is just around the corner. And on and on until legs give out.

At no point do I contemplate running a marathon, until I already have. I only sucker myself into going just a bit farther, and keep on doing that over and over again. And rather than realizing, I keep on suckering myself into going farther than I planned! This is mission creep! I re-frame it, and think, that wasn't so bad, why not throw on another 5K…

The few times when I planned on breaking my distance record, some joint would develop the wrong kind of pain, or other responsibilities would get in the way, and I'd be bent out of shape about "failing" to achieve my goal. So I have become superstitious about using my preferred method, and sneaking up on my goals.

First I cover my eyes, then I say boo. It works every time.