I have two big races on the horizon: the New Jersey Half Marathon on May 3 and the Newport Marathon on May 30. The first is a tuneup race, the second is the event I’ve been preparing for since November.
I don’t have a goal time yet for the marathon, as that will largely rest on two things: how I do in the half in a few weeks as well as how I do in my remaining key workouts between now and mid-May.
However, I am ready to declare my time goals for the New Jersey race, along with what their respective minute per mile (mpm) paces:
- Dream goal: 1:28:30 (6:46 mpm)
- Reasonable goal: 1:30:00 (6:52 mpm)
- “I can live with it” goal: 1:32:00 (7:02 mpm)
Declaring race goals publicly always makes me nervous. But in a strange way, I’ve often felt that the act of externalizing one’s judgments about what’s possible plays an important part in also being able to internalize those expectations. I say, “I will perform X on May 3” to the world and in turn my brain says, “Well, I guess I’d better get ready to perform X in a few weeks.”
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Races Like a Girl 