Secret Goals

Ever since I got serious about racing, I’ve always had a “secret goal” time for each race.  Some I’ve hit, some I haven’t.  I’m never public with the specific goal before the race for a lot of reasons.  It’s not that I’m scared of public failure, but there is so much to celebrate with each race, that regardless of time, it should be about celebration rather than disappointment.

My marathon goal last fall carried over to this spring.  I feel 1000 times more confident in my abilities now than I did last August before I hurt my hip.  But the reality is regardless of how confident training runs have made me, I’ve never ran 26.2 miles, and a lot can happen.  That said, the reason I am confident is my consistency.  I’ve never really been all of the board with long run or half marathon paces, I’m pretty darn consistent.  The first four half marathons of 2013 were all 1:47s, two of which were 1:47:14.  I think it’s crazy to run two halves in the same year with the finish time matching down to the SECOND.  My long run paces have been consistent this spring as well.  Some days are slightly faster than others, but temps and wind have played some factor.

 

I made a secret goal before my first 15K last fall.  I’d never ran a 15K race before, and it was an afternoon race.  I had no idea what to expect or how my body would respond.  I hit my goal, and felt amazing.  I felt disappointment after a couple of my half marathons last year when I didn’t hit my goal.  I think the 13.1 distance comes with more pressure now.  I know exactly what I want and what I’m capable of, and don’t want to come up short.  Maybe the secret to secret goal success is that unknown distance… no pressure, just determination to do the best I possibly can.

In exciting news, I received my bib number for the marathon today!  I can’t believe one week from now I’ll be hitting the road and spending my last night prepping for the race.