Wow, did that come up quick!! I'm very excited! The last 2 weeks have been tough training. I haven't been able to get through 7 miles without a lot of walking. My old problems have returned at a very bad time. I started to FREAK OUT, but decided that wouldn't get me anywhere but in a worse slump. Instead I've re-evaluated my goal for this marathon. Like I had a choice...LOL...
I am going to run an easy 5-6 miles today to see if I can get that groovy-groove back and if so (fingers crossed!) I plan on running for about 3 hours on Saturday. Distance will not be determined before hand...I'm just running to make sure I have the endurance. Time VS distance!
The Boston Qualifying attempt is shelved for this race. Yes, I was very disappointed. I figured I would miss it by about 20 minutes anyway, but I was going to start off with the 4 hour pace team and take it from there. Now I will start the race with about a 10:20 pace for a couple miles and slowly speed it up. If it's feeling good, I should get to a 9:15 pace by about 5-6 miles and I'm hoping to hold that for a while. I feel that by starting out slower than need be will be the key to a successful marathon.
Taking the pressure of a huge shave for this race has made me remember something really, really important. I LOVE TO RUN. I also love to set and attain goals, but the most important thing I so need to remember is I LOVE TO RUN. The one thing I will be doing on Feb 28, 2010 is running. I win!! So whether I get to the finish line in 4:00:59 or 5:00:59 should be irrelevant. But it's NOT!! Hahaha!! I still want a sub 4:30 finish, don't let me fool ya, but my attitude is morphing toward a "take it easier" approach, that's all. It is what it is.
I'll set a new goal for the finish time after Saturday's longy-long run. I'm looking at it as a "see-where-I'm-at" training run. With just 3 weeks to go I should pretty much be able to predict my race finish time.
Happy running everyone!!!!
