Just Keep Running. Just Keep Running

I've run with the KMA group at the park for the last two Saturdays. It takes a good deal of effort to do it. It means making sure I don't overdue it the night before. (One beer, no more.) It means waking up no later than 6:45 so I can do what needs to be done in the morning: short meditation, bathroom, brush teeth, get dressed, eat yogurt. Not to mention dealing with the kids' needs. I'm lucky if I get any of that time to myself before they're awake.

Oh, and did I mention that the regular class then starts at 9am?

I'm close to the park so it doesn't take long to get there for the run. But they start precisely at 8am and if you're late, you're not getting timed.
Timing is the key.
I've never run for time before. I've run off and on for years. I do enjoy it. For the vast majority of that time, however, I was a slow, unmotivated runner. Now it's different.
At the park we run a loop around the baseball fields that is a 1/4 mile. When you arrive you check in with Ma'am or someone else and tell her how many laps you intend to run. If it's 3 or fewer you're on one list. That used to be me.  If it's 4 or more you're on another.
The first time I attempted 4 laps I didn't complete them. I ran three and called it a day. That didn't feel very good. But the last two weeks I've made my best effort to run the 4. I've ended up walking some of it. I finish in under 21 minutes. And for the last two weeks I've been thinking that the goal is to run those 4 laps in under 15 minutes. I wasn't discouraged that I was 6 minutes over. I know I have a lot of time to work on increasing my speed and it's painfully obvious how much room for improvement I have even before I start working on techniques to help me shave off some time.
But yesterday I asked Ma'am to remind me of the goal. I'm so glad I did because it turns out that to qualify for the Black Belt cycle you need to be able to run a mile in under 20 minutes! Furthermore, she pointed out that my starting pace is right on target: I ran the first two laps in 9:37. That means I'm already under 5 minutes/lap. Woohoo! Go me!
So now I'm clear on what I'm working on: endurance. And I feel very optimistic about being able to nail that 15 minutes goal well before I'm trying to qualify for the Black Belt cycle.
However, given how I'm struggling to get through a mile, I made a decision about that 10k I'm supposed to run next weekend: I'm going to run the 5k instead.
I will run a 10k, but not before I've given myself a chance to do some real training for it. There's no point in attempting to run that distance just because I decided it would be a good goal. It is a good goal, and I will achieve it.
Just not next weekend.