Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Always reaching for the next challenge

If anyone is truly an avid reader, you will notice that the top of my blog no longer reads: 2009: The Year of the Triathlon. Now it reads: Goal: Boston 2011.

Yes, my friends. I have decided that my new challenge will be to learn a new skill - how to run fast. In order to qualify for Boston, I must complete a marathon in 3:40:00. This means I have to cut off 43 minutes from my best marathon time and basically run 26.2 miles at a 9.16 pace. That's the maximum I can do in order to reach this time.

How is this going to happen? I'm not really sure yet. I know that I will have to learn how to do 7 miles in an hour consistently. I know that I will have to do speed drills. It's possible that I will have to talk to a coach. But I think this is a good challenge. I'm hoping to complete this at the Marine Corps marathon 2010, which is in general a flat, easy course with lots of cheerleaders!

In the meantime, I will need to find multiple races to run between now and then. I'm not giving myself a lot of time here - the 2011 race is less than 2 years away. This is going to take some dedicated running and I will actually have to focus on my time now - not my favorite thing to do.

Away we go!

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