How important are goals?

Running is something I toyed with for about a year, maybe more, before I committed to actually running last summer.  I would be reading Facebook and see all sorts of friends running in races or organizing races and think, "I should try that."  The I would remember that I hate running and it makes me feel like I am dying and think about doing it "someday".  Well last school year I started back to work and I gained weight so I tried out running for a few weeks, talked enough about it to have a friend at work suggest I enter an upcoming race, then stopped running for over a month.  Obviously I took it back up, entered the race and completed it and have gone from there.  But here is the thing, the real reason i took up running was to lose weight.  In the seven months that I have been running I have lost 15 pounds.  In my head when I started I was going to lose five pounds a month and by now I would have reached my goal.  Why hasn't that happened?  I added calorie counting in, most of the time at least, in October.  I use My Fitness Pal most days to track both calories in and those used by exercise.  Do I need to run more?  Eat less?  Relax more?  Get rid of some stress?  I am at a loss as to what goal to set next.  I can keep going as I have been and enjoy slow weight loss, but I would love to see it go faster.  Starting on Wednesday I am giving up potato chips and french fries for Lent and, as those are two of my high calorie fun foods, that usually helps a bit.  Plus my training should be upping my miles soon so that may help too.  I want to do this smart, and keep running as a healthy pursuit, but I am ready to feel like  me again and that still hasn't totally happened.