Good-Day Goals & Bad-Day Goals

Had a marathon training mtg tonight w/ Team MBHP, and was impressed that Sean put his marathon time goal out there for G-d and everybody to see on his fundraising page. Goals can be scary.

After I ran my first half-marathon, I realized I could be faster, but that I didn't push myself and was scared. Of what? Setting goals and missing the mark? Meeting my goals, finding out that I'm capable of something more, and having to set a new goal? Finding out that I'm strong enough? Finding out how many people hold me up and love me anyway when I'm not strong enough? Eventually deciding to run a marathon?

So, here I find myself training for my first marathon. And I do have a goal, on which all of my training is based: I want to finish sub-4, which means a 9 min/mile pace. 26.2 of 'em.

That said, I've learned that for running, it's good to have a good-day goal, and a bad-day goal. Bad days happen -- last night's dinner was too spicy, or after I'm warmed up, my foot still twinges where it was broken. If I don't cut myself some slack for that, I'll go back to being afraid to set goals.

For instance, my shoulder has been hurting a lot for a few days, so yesterday my good-day goal was to do 3 x 1 mile at 8 min. pace. My bad-day goal was 2 at 8 min pace, and then break the last mile into halves if need be. When I got to that last half-mile, I thought "You have another .25 in you." And when I got to the last .25, I thought, "This is just like the turn onto Hereford right before mile 26. Run, girl." I had a good day.

My bad-day goal for April 20th is to finish. Because really, running 26.2 miles is pretty hard, whether you finish in 2:04, 3:57, or 6:30.