Twin Cities Marathon: It's Goal Time

View from above my tune-up run in Winona this morning

Tomorrow morning I'll be running the Twin Cities Marathon. I'm pretty excited for the race as it will be the first time in several years that I've followed a training plan for a marathon. I wrote the training plan myself, and when I write training plans I draw from a variety of sources, but a lot of what I base my training plans on is from a book by Matt Fitzgerald and Brad Hudson called "Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach." 

This training plan generally involved a speed or interval workout, a tempo run or cruise intervals, a long run, easy runs, and two weightlifting sessions. I started the plan at about 30 miles a week and built up to a peak week of 67 miles.

Since training went so well, my goal for the race is a little loftier than I would have thought when I started this plan a few months ago. I did a few 5Ks during this training plan, and three weeks ago I raced a half marathon as a tune up race. Based on my time of 1:27:06, the VDOT calculator has me predicted to run a 3:01:45, and the McMillan calculator predicts a 3:03:18.

While I'd love to run a 3:01 or a 3:03, I've always been a little faster as the distance gets shorter, so 3:03 sounds a little faster than I think I could do. 

So, here are my A, B, and C goals:

A Goal:
3:05. I think this will be tough, but doable. One cool thing about this goal is that there is a 3:05 pacer, and I know him and have run with him before.

B Goal:
3:09:43. This is the time I would have had to run this year to get into the Boston Marathon.

C Goal:
3:15. Running this time would qualify me for the Boston Marathon, but this year qualifiers needed to run over five minutes faster than their qualifying time to get in (they randomly draw for additional entrants).

I've never hit my A goal in a marathon before, but I feel like I have a good chance tomorrow. I plan on going out with the 3:05 pacer and just seeing what happens.

Thanks to everyone who's offered words of encouragement and support and thanks to all my readers. I'm looking forward to writing about how the race went soon.