The Running Marketer

In 5 weeks and 4 days, at this time, I’ll be in the latter parts of running the Sydney Marathon.

The training is, well, going. It’s the chunky part of the plan. Last week I ran 52km–a new record for me–and I have a 28km run scheduled for Sunday.

So, it’s goal setting time. I’ve been watching a lot of The Running Channel stuff lately and they talk about having 3 goals: an A, a B, and a C.

the A goal, which is the best you hope for if you have a perfect race; the B goal, which is something you still consider a great achievement; and a C goal, which might be more about how you conduct yourself in the run (enjoy the experience, keep on smiling)

The Running Channel

My goals

This is my first, and only, marathon. I’m more accepting of the training process than enjoying it. I nearly cried at the idea of another hill during a long run and that run was less than 2 hours long. Going by last week’s run, the Sydney Marathon will take me about 6 hours. Garmin predicts 5:13:51 but I think Garmin’s forgotten there are nearly as many hills on that route are there are around Blackburn.

My A goal

Is to not die. Yeah, it’s a bit dramatic but that would make a perfect race.

My B goal

Is to finish.

My C goal

To finish under 5:30:00.

Yeah, it’s a little backwards, but my thoughts at the moment just want the race over with. Why don’t I just not run it? It is the Sydney Marathon: kind of a very big deal. And I did plan to run both a half marathon and full marathon before I turn 50.