QUALIFICATIONS:
I started running 'for real' when I retired from soccer last summer. I'd played organized or recreational soccer since the age of 6, but the hard ground in Texas made my knees and ankles too sore.
Add a healthy amount of continuous bickering amongst the team, and it made it for more of a painful Sunday experience than it should ever have been. After 7 season in Austin's indoor and outdoor leaguesm I decided to retire after the spring 2005 season.
In August of 2005, I started running a few times a week with the end goal of being able to run 4 miles non-stop by September 1st. (The running group / program I had signed up for required the ability to run a minimum of 4 non-stop miles, regardless of pace.)
It was a group that was going to train towards the Motive "Bison Stampede" Half Marathon. 13.1 challenging miles through the hilly Northwest Austin course. I was happy to finish in 1hr54 (8:45/mile), an initial PR(personal Record) I'd improve upon.
Prior to 2006, in addition to a few 5K's and the yearly Thanksgiving Turkeytrot, I had only run the Capitol 10K once with Marla back in 2002, but hadn't really trained for any of these. 6.1 miles was therefore my all-time record.
A year later, after 3 half marathons(1hr38minPR) and countless smaller races, I
I'm sticking to Rogue as my training group, which includes a group Wednesday 5:45pm 'Quality' workout, and goup long run on Saturdays. In addition, I get a personal running schedule to get through on my own for the other days of the week.
I've never run past 14.5 miles in my life, so many of these upcoming long Saturday morning runs will be personal records leading up to the
Austin Marathon.
GOAL
I'm not sure what my time goal will be. I'm assuming I'll have a couple of months to figure out my MGP (Marathon Goal Pace). Part of me thinks I will be capable of clearing 3hr30min(8min/mile MGP), and the other half of me thinks 3hr40(8:24 MGP), or even 3hr50(8:47MGP) sound more realistic. We'll see how things go.
Moving forward, I'll do my best to chronicle the next 195 days of my life leading up my destiny on Feb 18, 2007.
2 comments:
Good for you! The marathon is a great goal, and very doable esp. if you're training with a group. No matter how you slice it though, the last 10K is brutal. Especially if you're racing as opposed to just running. But even if you're just running. It's worth it though. Enjoy the journey. I'll look forward to reading about it...
Ahh.. now I understand the guilt trip about not running the whole thing
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