1. We (J, the girls, and I) are leaving for the marathon today. Indianapolis is just shy of 11 hours from here, so we have one heck of a road trip ahead of us. The plan is to drive to Kentucky tonight and finish the rest of our journey in the morning. Hopefully, that keeps us from going INSANE in the car (both from the girl's screaming/fighting/whatever and the replay of DVDs we have seen a MILLION times). It's going to be a preview of the mental test of the marathon. Only, I won't be able to escape. Oh, and it's raining right now. Like huge a** thunderstorms. And we have to drive over little mountain roads. Fun.
2. Goals. Everyone keeps asking me what my goal time is for this race. But, honestly, my BIG goal for this race is not my time. What I really want to do is FOLLOW THE RACE PLAN. I almost always have a plan going into a race and I almost NEVER follow it. I need to follow the plan. I need to know I can follow the plan, so that next time (yes, I said next time) I can go for the UBER-GOAL.
That's not to say that I don't have a time I would like to hit. I do. It's anything faster than 5:06:38, my current PR. And I know that if I follow my race plan, I am going to kill that time. By a lot.
And speaking of my finish time. If you have a guess on it, you could win a prize. Head over to
THIS post and see what I am talking about.
3.
G and I were talking the other day about how you are either a marathon person or you're not. Some runners never have the desire to run 26.2 and others race the distance once and can be done with it. Then, there are the rest of us. We go back to the distance over and over (even if we swear we never will again). There is something that draws us in (for me, it's the bragging rights).
After my first two marathon training cycles, I swore I was never going to look at another marathon registration form again. I was done. My body couldn't handle it. Peace out.
But what I know now is that I wasn't properly trained for the event. I built my mileage too fast. I ran too fast during training. And I ended up injured. This time, things were different. My mileage base was larger than it had ever been BEFORE I registered for the race (even compared to other marathon training cycles). I knew that my body could handle it. And that what I needed to tackle was the mental challenge of the race. And I think I am well prepared for that. So much so, that I have already registered for the next one (
National Marathon - 3/26/11, if you're interested). And a
50K is on the calendar for the end of 2011.
Seriously, who have I become?
2. Goals. Everyone keeps asking me what my goal time is for this race. But, honestly, my BIG goal for this race is not my time. What I really want to do is FOLLOW THE RACE PLAN. I almost always have a plan going into a race and I almost NEVER follow it. I need to follow the plan. I need to know I can follow the plan, so that next time (yes, I said next time) I can go for the UBER-GOAL.
That's not to say that I don't have a time I would like to hit. I do. It's anything faster than 5:06:38, my current PR. And I know that if I follow my race plan, I am going to kill that time. By a lot.
And speaking of my finish time. If you have a guess on it, you could win a prize. Head over to THIS post and see what I am talking about.
3. G and I were talking the other day about how you are either a marathon person or you're not. Some runners never have the desire to run 26.2 and others race the distance once and can be done with it. Then, there are the rest of us. We go back to the distance over and over (even if we swear we never will again). There is something that draws us in (for me, it's the bragging rights).
After my first two marathon training cycles, I swore I was never going to look at another marathon registration form again. I was done. My body couldn't handle it. Peace out.
But what I know now is that I wasn't properly trained for the event. I built my mileage too fast. I ran too fast during training. And I ended up injured. This time, things were different. My mileage base was larger than it had ever been BEFORE I registered for the race (even compared to other marathon training cycles). I knew that my body could handle it. And that what I needed to tackle was the mental challenge of the race. And I think I am well prepared for that. So much so, that I have already registered for the next one ( National Marathon - 3/26/11, if you're interested). And a 50K is on the calendar for the end of 2011.
Seriously, who have I become?