Thursday, July 28, 2011

San Francisco Marathon Goals

Yikes, only three days until the San Francisco Marathon!

I'm really excited about this run for many reasons:
1) I'm finally back in shape post baby
2) It's been over two years since my last marathon
3) I have a shot at a decent run; my training went fairly well
4) It'll be a fun, downtown weekend with the family!

I've gone back and forth about my goals for the marathon. On one hand, I'd like to be aggressive with the race. On the other hand, it's difficult for me to determine a 'safe' aggressive approach, since it has been so long since my last marathon.  Here are the goals I settled on:

Time Goals:
A Goal: 3:40 - I know it's not really a BQ anymore, but I still have this number in the back of my head... it's hard to change that now!
B Goal: 3:48 - This would give me a PR
C Goal:  4:00 - or just finish, if something has gone wrong =)

Other Goals:
Pacing Plan: I want to negative split this thing. I've never done that in a marathon and, more importantly, the course almost demands it.
 Miles 1-6: 8:30 - 8:35 pace (I almost always start too fast)
 Miles 7-13: 8:20 - 8:25 pace
 Miles 14-20: 8:15 to 8:20 pace
 Miles 21-26: whatever I've got left =)

Overall Experience: Have Fun!!! Running marathons is a wonderful, awesome hobby and I'm so glad to be able to do it again. Also, San Francisco is a beautiful city and I'm really looking forward to enjoying the course!

No comments:

Post a Comment