Archive for October 4th, 2008

Yesterday it came to my attention that my backup marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon, is filling up pretty quickly and I will have to decide before Steamtown if I should sign up or not.  I have no interest in doing the race this year, 6 weeks after my marathon debut, but it’s my Plan B in case Steamtown is a bust.  Here’s the question though…what exactly constitutes a bust?

Before my DNF of the Distance Run, I would have said it was not hitting my preferred goal time of 3:45, but I’ve since gained some perspective on it, so a 4:00 would be fine and fab for my first, if that’s what I end up with.  Over 4:00 however, I’d want to redeem myself in Philly.

I just wish Philly didn’t cost $125 because given a choice, I really don’t want to run a marathon 6 weeks after my first unless I have to.  I could go for the Half (only $100!) but I believe you can only upgrade to the Full as long as there’s room left.  I did the Half last year and I’m not dying to do it again and besides, I signed up for a sweet Half in the Spring, the Lehigh Valley Half, so I can wait till then for a new Half PR.

Decisions, decisions…

Now I’d like to address something I’ve brought up before and we’ve actually discussed, thanks to you, my fine blog commenting friends.  Yesterday I was advised by a forum friend that I should be conservative and instead of going for 3:45, should shoot for sub-4:00, simply because it’s my first marathon.

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you would know that this rankles me to the bone.  Why do people who have a difficult first marathon (or second or third or fourth) assume you will too?  As if we were all cut from the same cloth.  We’re not.

Lower expectations do not motivate me – that’s not what I consider fun.  I can appreciate that some folks enjoy entering races as training runs or like to race conservatively or to test the waters on a distance before going all out their second time, but that’s not me.  I race to race.  That’s how I get my jollies.

Nevertheless, as strong a person as I am in many ways, hearing these doubts about my first marathon leads me to doubt myself all over again.  Suddenly I’m poring over my logs, wondering if I was fooling myself the whole cycle (maybe I didn’t do the work I thought I had, maybe my mileage wasn’t up to snuff, did I miss some runs I don’t remember missing??) but no, it’s all there.  I’ve no reason to feel down about it, I just need to clear my head of all the lingering negative fuzz.