I fail if I don't try

I had an interesting run today. I was by myself, and nothing remarkable happened, but I did do a lot of thinking. I finished the first mile in sub-11 time. Then, I ran up to Sugarhouse and didn't bother to look at my watch until I got to the south hill of the park. I decided to time myself hoping to beat the 50-second time that i clocked on my last run through the park. However, I don't remember where I started clocking last time. That is my excuse for this ascent being 5 seconds slower. I reached the half way point of the run in 29:31 and knew that if I worked hard, I could finish the route in less than an hour. This is where my thinking began. I don't know why, but something popped into my head, and I couldn't get it out. A couple of weeks ago, we had a training here at work, and the take-away from it was "what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?" My answer was "everything!" I would be an astronaut, be the president, play the guitar, be a ballerina, own a horse ranch, volunteer on a regular basis, and read all of the classics. I would also lose weight. Then, it hit me. I'm not really trying. (Duh, obvious! This was NOT the revelation, by the way.) The thing that stuck in my head for the next 2 1/2 miles was this: I fail if I don't try. This mantra coincidentally fits perfectly every eight steps - that's probably why it kept circling around in my brain. From 13th to 9th, I was blessed with green lights and perfect traffic, and I tried to run it pretty fast. Even 9th to 7th felt relatively fast. I hit a light at 7th and had time to reassess my goal. My watch read 46-something. By the time I crossed the street, it was 47 on the dot. I thought that I would see if I could get a 10-minute mile. I didn't look at my watch again until State Street. When I did, I about fell down. AN 8 MINUTE MILE. My watch said 55. 5-friggin-5!!!!!!!!!! Holy shit. Maybe I should really try more often!
Stats: 5.5 miles in 56:15 for a 10:14mpm pace