Should I be competitive?

Will I get better in my next half marathon race, end of March? Time to beat is 1:34: I'm hoping to get close to 1:32. But, sometimes I'm tiring myself with the goal-setting that I do. With my 40 years, who cares about my time anyway? Inspired by Running over forty: I do! I don't want to live 'medical', but I know my self esteem gets a boost when I'm just a wee bit faster than the average guy in my age group. So, I train 3-4 times/week (taken up spinning recently, good fun), alternating swimming with running to protect the joints a bit, try to eat healthy and the good thing is, if you're doing long runs, you get to sightsee, think and exercise at the same time!