Chilly Half Marathon Goals

Well, the bib numbers have been posted (1569) and so its time to post about my goals for the upcoming Chilly Half Marathon on Sunday March 2nd.

Originally, the plan here was to run it fast and finally claim that pure 1:45 for both Sam and I. I've PR'd on the course the past two years and I really enjoy the nature of the course a lot.

The course starts in downtown Burlington on Brant, goes out west on Lakeshore, behind Joseph Brant hospital before turning around to head east along Lakeshore to Burloak. At that point, we turn around again (this is about 12k in) and head back to Brant and across the finish line. Last year I executed an almost perfect negative split race when I felt so good and was able to pick up the pace to catch Sam and Phil by 18k. It makes sense that the plan to go sub 1:45:56 and PR was what propelled me to sign up in the first place for the 2014 edition.

Then, enter The Polar Vortex: Winter of Doom and its sequel, Plantar Fasciitis: The Battle for Dominance. While training actually hasn't been derailed by either (I've stuck to the treadmill to deal with the winter and have only skipped a few pace workouts), I still don't feel like I'm in the shape I was in back in November to be able to give this race a proper go at a PR.

I'm resigned to the fact that I won't three-peat at Chilly. I'm comforted by the fact that the real goal race is the Mississauga Marathon ( a mere 65 days away!). So, I decided to race this half marathon as a true test and to do so with friends.

The decision was made after I was creeping reading Emma's blog and noticed that she was just shy of a 1:50 half marathon PR. If I'm at 1:50 at the half way point of Mississauga, I'll be running the slowest I possibly can and still hit my Boston Qualification time of 3:40. Seems like a good time to test how easy 1:50 held steady, feels. Plus, Sam said she'd also start with us. Of course everyone is all, "Depending on the weather. Depending on my PF."

I'm just going to ignore my still phlegmy lungs (yes, this never went away when my lung infection did in October).

I'm going to ignore this:

And I'm going to hope that the improvement I'm seeing in my foot is really in my foot and not in my head.

And I hope that I can return next week with a tale of easy running and PR glory (for Emma).

A Goal: 1:50 or better

B Goal: Race smart (e.g. don't mess up my foot any more!)

C Goal: Have fun. #alltheracephotorunnerdposes

D Goal (You all know this one): Don't crap my pants!

See y'all after the race.