When Considering a Goal.

As training continues I'm beginning to think more about setting a goal time in which to complete the marathon.  I'm no Meb, so its something I need to be realistic about.  In my heart of hearts I want to finish in a time that starts with a "3."  But as I track my progress and I continue to run 4,6, or 10 miles and my pace is consistently in the mid- to high-9 minutes, I begin to question how realistic that may be.

In order to run a sub-four hour marathon, one has to run under a 9 minute 10 second mile.  From where I sit now, this seems like a lofty goal, but when I look back at previous times I have some hope. In 2010 I ran a half-marathon in 1:54:34.  That's a pace of 8:44.  I could add 20 seconds to that pace and run a sub-four marathon comfortably.  Trouble is getting back there...

Athlinks is a great website I used regularly when I was running with greater frequency (2009-2011).  It allows you to claim and log your personal times from an enormous database of online race results. You can view my results on the webpage. Some of my better times include a 7:28 5k in Montclair and a 7:33 showing at the Ashenfleter 8k in Glen Ridge.  I am certain that I couldn't post these times now (I was in pretty damn good shape between running and Jiu Jitsu back then), but I am also confident that given enough effort I could get back there.

All this factors in to if and when to draw a line in the sand and declare a goal for a marathon finish. I am not ready to do so yet, but I do believe in setting discrete goals for myself and therefore I likely will do so. One of my greatest fears is being average.  Thus I will almost certainly choose a time that is better than the average (mean, median?). From some (kind of sketchy) information I found online, it appears to be about 4:08 for my age class at the NYC marathon. We'll see.

I have a lot of running yet to do and thus a lot of time to meditate on just such a quandary. I'll keep you posted.

Speaking of goals, in my last post I stated that I would love to reach $5,000 before the end of July. Check. Thanks to a slew of new donations we are now flirting with $6,000 raised and currently the Team Boomer fundraiser leader out of 39 individuals.  Thank you so much for your support. Please continue to spread the word.

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