GRANDMA'S GOAL

I just ran an easy 6 miles this morning. My legs felt surprisingly good, given that I ran nearly 4:20 over the weekend. About the only thing interesting that happened was I saw a gal up ahead that was wearing a flesh colored shirt. Obviously, I knew she was wearing a shirt, but until I got within 100 feet of her, I couldn’t tell the difference.

I’ve been thinking about my Grandma’s goal a little bit more lately. Plus, last weekend I had 3 people asked me what my goal is. So, I thought I’d better get something down in writing, because, as they’d say in those Franklin Planning sessions, “an unwritten goal is just a wish.”

I have 2 more months to go and a few more races, so I’ll wait to write anything in stone. But right now, at a minimum, I want to PR, which would mean breaking 2:58. However, I like round numbers and 6:40-pace is a nice, round number that translates to sub-2:55. That feels possible. But then I think; there’s a gal that beat me in two 10Ks last year, by 6 and 13 seconds, who went on to run 2:53:01 at Twin Cities Marathon. So maybe 2:53 is possible, even though “they” say men slow down more than woman, the longer the distance.

My recent 8k predicts a 2:57:03 using the McMillan calculator. In the past, the results of this calculator are pretty “typical.” That means I’ve never been able to run my predicted marathon time. However, this year I feel stronger than I do fast, so maybe this is the year of change – or maybe I’m just fooling myself.