upcoming races & goals
Boy, all this talk in other running blogs of potential & goal setting (ya, you know who you are Richard Annalisa Chris & Dianna!) has really got me thinking about my own. Add the fact that I’ve been reading inspirational quotes and I’m feeling highly motivated to jot some stuff down so here goes!
| Race | Date | Goals |
| Canada Day 15k Road Race |
July 1, 2004 | 1:12:00 finish 7:45 min/mile pace |
Beethoven 8km Road Race |
July 18, 2004 | 37:17 finish 7:30 min/mile pace |
| Edmonton Centennial Half-Marathon |
August 22, 2004 | 1:40:59 finish 7:45 min/mile pace |
| Royal Victoria Marathon (Victoria, B.C.) |
October 10, 2004 | 3:30:59 finish 8:00 min/mile |
I really struggled with the last goal. On the one hand, my experience with marathons has been that getting a PR – even a five minute PR is very difficult and I am not just basing this on my own experience but also from watching many friends working at improving their times. So, I was thinking about a 3:39 goal but…
On the other hand, I am reminded of Richard’s very poignant remark, “You may not be able to live up to your expectations, but you will almost always live down to them.”
I think Richard and Aaron approach this area of goal setting similarly. In my last PR marathon, Aaron and I ran together for about 25km until he decided to “go for it” and pulled ahead. Aaron said at one point, he was on target for a 3:36 finish but ran out of energy (he forgot to eat in the last half) and slowed up in the last part of the race. I chose to run a safer race because it was my 5th crack at running a 3:45 marathon and I was determined not to make any mistakes that would jeopardize getting it on my fifth.
In the end, we finished 12 seconds apart. Two people with entirely different race tactics finishing virtually side by side but I wonder – if Aaron HAD ate, would he have gotten his 3:36 and, for that matter if I had run less conservatively, might I have too? I think what I’ve come to is the realization that in order to improve, a person has to take some calculated risks – something I feel comfortable doing now that I have the 3:45 monkey off my back.
So, as Dianna put it so eloquently on her blog, “I’ve put my goal out there so I can’t take it back”!
Now it’s all about the training, my mind-set and whatever the running gods bring on race day.
Let the chips fall where they may!
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I’m adding this comment after the fact – If you ever want to run an absolutely beautiful marathon – Royal Victoria is the place to do it. It was listed in Runner’s World Magazine’s top ten destination marathons two years ago!
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Thursday June 10, 2004 @
Hi Bro
I think you have set some challenging but very realistic goals for yourself. You nailed racing on the head further down in your comments. You can always go out slower and if things feel good crank it up. Goals are just that. Sometimes you hit and sometimes you miss but as my favorite sports hero said “you always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. I LOVE that saying.
Go for it – you know I’ll be cheering for you.
Little Sis.