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Setting Personal Goals at Pacesetter

Do you set yourself goals? Do you challenge yourself and attempt to take yourself out of your comfort zone? Here at Pacesetter, that’s exactly what our team have set out to do this year!

Last year, Nick Bellamy (Pacesetter MD and fitness fanatic) set The Park Run Challenge for the Pacesetters - to complete 1 park run per month for the academic year. By doing so all those who managed it were put in a draw for one person to win £500 towards gym membership, race entries or sports kit! By the end of July 2019, 15 of the team managed to complete the challenge, and many others took part - in total Pacesetters ran 254 Park Runs, totalling 1,270km! This year, Nick decided to take this to the next level, setting 3 challenges:

  • Virtual Run to Krakow - Greg, one of our coaches, drives all the way to Krakow each Summer and our challenge is to run that distance (1,750km) over the year in various running races (including Park Runs, Competitive runs, Triathlons, Duathlons and Aquathlons)
  • Race for holiday - to tie in with the Race to Krakow and to encourage us to all join in, every km that each of us runs in these races goes towards accruing annual leave! 29km equates to half a days holiday and up to 5 days can be gained!
  • The Park Run Challenge - as per last year, and hopefully with even more competing!

To run (no pun intended) alongside these challenges, we have all been asked to set our own sporting challenges and goals for the year ahead. Something to push our limits and improve our overall fitness (and hence mental wellbeing). Not only this but it creates accountability - rather than just talking about what we want to achieve, we’re now obligated to do it! We’ve even created a wall of all of our challenges (see photo above) to push ourselves, inspire others and of course, hold us ACCOUNTABLE!

With only 7 weeks of the year passed, we’ve already achieved 430 km (thats 25% of the Road to Krakow) including 3 half marathons, 6 10k’s and 55 Park Run’s! And we’ve also got future half marathons, full marathons, 10k’s and half IronMan’s booked in! The challenge is clearly being taken seriously, which is great to see!

Nick Bellamy, Pacesetter MD, commented “I am a firm believer that the only way to achieve big things is through accountability and supporting one another to go further than we could ever imagine. We’re already seeing this with staff who had never even ran before now talking seriously about marathons and triathlons. This can only contribute towards a happier, healthier workplace full of motivated individuals.”

Putting the challenges aside (and the chance to win holiday!), an important aspect to becoming more physically active, is the mental health benefits that come with it. By completing physical challenges, we feel pleased with ourselves for having a go and it can really lift our mood! Physical activity can also reduce the risk of depression, help deal with anxiety and help manage stress.

Keep an eye on the Pacesetter social channels (Facebook, Instagram & Twitter) to keep up to date with the challenges and follow the team’s progress.