What are my goals for my first marathon?
Aside from the obvious goal of finishing I do have some goals that I'd like to achieve for my first outing. Other than finishing time goals I also have some goals along the way. The first of which is to go out slow and finish fast. I've kind of secured a method for doing this by hooking up with a fellow runner for the first 8 miles. She will be running the half-marathon with a slightly slower goal pace than my own. This will work out well for me. I'll start the race with her, and let her set the pace for those miles. After that I'll hopefully feel fresh enough to slowly increase the pace over the remaining 18.2 miles.
My time goal is in three tiers. My ultimate goal is to run a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:10. I would be ecstatic if that happened, but it seems unlikely. Nothing in my training up to this point would lead me to believe that I'll be running a Boston qualifier, but I can dream. My more realistic time goal is to run a 3:30. That would fall more in line with my training. Plus there is the inexperience factor. The farthest run I've had is my 20 mile long run, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the last 6.2 miles. I'd still be ecstatic with anything under 3:30.
The third tier of the goal is based on a dream. I had a dream some time back that I ran the Flying Pig in 3:45. Is it prophecy? I guess we'll see on Sunday. My final goal if I don't reach the others is to beat my dream self.
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