Weekend Rewind

I had every single intention of blogging on Friday.  I packed my laptop, had plenty of car time of just sitting with NO kids.  Plus hotel time and just plain downtime, so I had planned to post my marathon goals in Friday's post.  However, my ride came much later than expected (which didn't effect my ride time, but meant more unexpected time waiting) and once I was on the road I couldn't get my laptop to turn on at all.  Well, so much for getting that done.  But, I really REALLY wanted to post marathon goals, so I am going to today and then spend the next few days giving you race recaps.

I promise, promise that none of the events that have already happened will affect what I was going to post on Friday.  Also keep in mind, that the events of Boston have not changed my goals at all.  I stated at the beginning of the month what some of my goals were.  The Boston events certainly added fuel to the fire, but I already had these goals set in place.

On Friday night I ran the Illinois 5k.  I wasn't planning to do full goals for that race.  Even though I had just set a pr (personal record) the weekend before on my 5k time I already wanted to try and break that record.  Simply put my goal was to pr if I could, but otherwise have a fun, enjoyable race.  After all I had a marathon to run the next day.

On Saturday I ran the Illnois Marathon.  That's 26.2 miles for those who don't know.  And yes, you would be surprised how many people don't know that is what a marathon is.  I have a lot of people ask me about a marathon I ran, etc. only to realize they are actually referring to a 5k that I just ran.  It's quite humorous at times.  Anyway, here are my goals for this marathon:

My I FINISHED goal:
To arrive on time. To start. To finish.  aka: Finish Feeling Fine & having Fun.  This is not my first marathon, I am more than capable of this.  However, in the event that something were to go wrong I at least want this goal to be reached.

My I CAN goal:
Finish in under 3 hours 54 minutes.  That is what I ran last year at this same marathon.  Last year I was injured and severely under trained, but ran anyway.  This year I know I am not injured and have had several months of excellent running (not sure I want to say training, I don't really train per say....I just run).  Running anything lower than this would also be a PR based on the difference in this year vs. last I knew this was going to be easy to do.

My I LOVE IT goal:
To run a BQ (Boston qualifying) time.  For those who don't know, in order to run the Boston Marathon you must run a qualifying time to be able to register.  It's based on age and gender.  For me I had to run no slower than a 3:40 time.  I was very confident I could reach this goal with some ease.  Not saying it's going to be easy, it IS still 26.2 miles.  Based on other recent race times and my running condition I knew this was extremely possible.  Whether or not I actually ever go and run the Boston Marathon is a completely different subject, but it's an accomplishment in and of itself to be able to say you have met that guideline and qualified to run that race.

My I DREAM IT goal:  To finish between 3:20 - 3:30.  If I have to squeak in on the Boston time and run a 3:39:59 I will be happy and love it.  Even better I know I'm capable of more than that so I'm shooting for faster than that basic BQ standard.  Based on my most recent half marathon time, if I simply double that I should be able to run a 3:20 time.  Of course you are suppose to factor in the fact that the longer you go the slower pace you are likely to have.  While my last half marathon had some hills, this marathon is flat.  That can make a difference, so can the weather and other factors like how I feel and how my body responds.  Little things here and there can make or break a race.  I'm not afraid to dream big though so I'm shooting for this lower time and a marathon time I have never ran before.  I CAN DO IT!



Stay tuned for my race recaps in the next few days!