Contemplative 10

Tomorrow is Soul Buster I. 16 miles up and down some of the baddest hills in Austin followed by 4 miles on the track at MGP. Doesn't sound like the hardest SB the team has undertaken BUT it may be the most relevant to Boston. Boston is 14 miles of mostly down hill running followed by 5 miles of climbing ending with 6 miles of relative flat. For me, it will be the first soul buster that I will be undertaking healthy. We are far enough out that I am not too concerned if I struggle some AND I am not sitting here saying I'll be fine if only my (fill in the blank injury) doesn't get worse.

Kamran posted some of his initial thoughts on formulating a race plan for Boston. It has gotten me thinking about what my goal is for Boston. I have stated my goal of running a 3 hour marathon. I recently told Steve that I was not certain I could stand at the start of ANY marathon and not have that goal in mind. I am going to have to find a way to deal with the possibility that I get to Boston able to run 3:05 or 3:10 but not ready to go for <3:00. I'm not sure I want to run another 4:00 Boston and I KNOW I don't want another DNF. So for right now, my TRAINING paces are based on a 2:59:00 marathon goal. I will evaluate how the training goes and talk to Steve about my goal at some future date. In any case, there are no pace leaders at Boston and I will likely have no one to pace off of so I will be responsible for implementing my race plan. Scary thought.