What a long, strange road it’s been
This weekend I’m running my first ever marathon. If you know me, you know that I’m pretty serious about running and more than a little competitive. This April I set three goals for myself:
- 155 lbs (from 178)
- 20 minute 5K
- Marathon
In retrospect these may have been a bit tame - I hit my goal weight on July first and have been dominating races all Summer, including a 19:09 5K in McKinney that was good enough to net first place in my age group on a hot morning. It’s safe to say that I’m less confident about my marathon than I was during these shorter races.
I followed an advanced training plan because I’m kind of a masochist with ambitious goals. It worked out for a while - I kept up with the weekly mileage and even surpassed the goals at some points along the way. All of this progress came at a great personal cost though - my social life was basically dead because of the 5am wake-up call, especially on weekends. In addition to that, I felt like my brain was rotting because all I did was run, walk the dog, work, walk the dog, and sleep. In the last month I’ve flipped all of these things around and started doing stuff again and my running has taken a nosedive.
I run when I can nowadays, which means 3-4 instead of 6 days a week and often during the hotter parts of the day I had previously avoided. I only completed 1 of the 3 planned 20 mile runs, and my final distance run was cut short at mile 14 of 18 because of Texas’ afternoon heat. I’m going into this race feeling refreshed, but unsure of myself. Enough rambling though; on with the goals!
Omaha Marathon goals - September 25, 2011
Ideal: 3:00:00
Good: 3:05:00 (2013 BQ)
Poor: 3:15:00
Here are some mildly entertaining pictures of my training. Once the race is complete I’ll post a race report, pictures, and a few retrospective comments. Here goes nothing…
