Goals for Charleston

Saturday Kelley and I will both be running the Charleston Marathon in Charleston SC.  It will be my fourth marathon, and her second.  We are setting some goals to reach out for.

Kelley's first marathon was Myrtle Beach in 2009, she ran a 5:56 that included time stopped chatting and hanging out with her family on the course.  This time she's going to line up with the 5 hour pace group, but I feel confident she'll finish before then.  My prediction is a 1 hour PR for Kelley.

My first marathon (if you haven't been reading since 2009) was the Hatfield/McCoy where I finished in 5:07 and ended up in the emergency room in middle of nowhere West Virginia with extreme dehydration and heat exhaustion.  That was fun.  Then in 2010 I smashed the 5 hour barrier with a 4:31 in the Tobacco Road marathon, which I loved and will be returning to this year.  That was a March 2010 full, and I didn't run another full until November 2011 in Ironman Florida.  During that 20 month span between marathons, I lost a bunch of weight and got fast.  So I actually set my marathon PR during the Ironman while trying to hold back and run as slow as possible to avoid hitting the wall.  PR 4:25 set a few months ago.

Marathon Death March at mile 25 of Hatfield/McCoy

At the finish line of Tobacco Road marthon in 2010

Goal #1:  PR
Sounds simple enough.  Surely if I take a smaller warm up than that 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike ride I can pull a 4:24 or faster.

This also includes my normal every-time goal of Finish, Don't Die.  This is the first race in our attempt to qualify for the Marathon Maniacs, where you only have to finish (preferably alive) to qualify.

Goal #2: Sub-4
Right now The Snail is sitting on a 3:59:56 PR from his marathon in Savannah the same day I ran IMFL.  We have mutual targets of beating the other one by 5 seconds.  So if I can go 3:59:51 or faster it's a win.  Granted he's all into trail ultras this year, which is cool, but I still want to pwn him at this distance.  by 5 seconds.

I'm-Not-Really-Overtrained Goal: 3:30
All of my run training before and after Ironman has been focused on 8 minute miles or faster.  Finishing the marathon in 3:30 is exactly an 8:00 per mile pace. If I start out too fast, I'll bonk out at the end.  I've finished plenty of 20 mile runs in 2:40 and I think I can hold the same pace for another 10k, but you never really know until you get there. 

They have a 3:30 pace group listed out.  I'm going to line up in that group at the start and try not to get ahead or behind.  I will have the garmin on, and will note my important mile splits.  The plan is to take GU's every 4 miles, advil and Endurolytes as needed.  They have aide stations every 2 miles until mile 21, and every mile after that.  4 miles at an 8 m/m pace should mean that I'm gelling every 32 minutes with one other water stop in between.  This should keep me with enough electrolytes to be good for the duration, as long as I can also get enough water. 

Part of me still has the haunting suspicion that I didn't take enough time to recover from the Ironman.  I've been fighting some of the signs of overtraining, like insomnia and fatigue.  The speed and comfort isn't always there when I expect it to be, like it was before Ironman.  One of my old coaches even warned me on facebook that I might be overtrained.  So I'm just going to pay attention to the 8 m/m pace.  If it's not there, I could bring some serious wrongs by pushing it too hard that could screw up the whole year.  That's not the goal.  So officially I'm going for a sub-3:30, but I will not feel guilty about slowing it down if I think it's going to wreck my season.  There are still two more marathons in the next two months to finish.

It's supposed to be sunny with a high of 53 on Saturday in Charleston, so it should be great conditions for a marathon.  The course is very flat, incredibly scenic, and goes through lots of downtown and historical Charleston without leaving the mainland.  We're staying with my brother Michael for the weekend, and our friends Joe and Gina are also coming down.  Gina's running, they've never been to Charleston before so they are in for a treat.  Lots of fun with friends and family is the name of the game.

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On another fun note, the Bone Island triathlon exists now.  Full and Half Iron races, and it's the second full Iron triathlon put on by Setup Events director Jeremy Davis.  He's also the race director for the PPD Beach 2 Battleship that I wanted to run as my next full iron race.  Bone Island is Jan 12, 2013 (one year from today), it's the first year for the race, and it's in Key West Florida.  Registration is already open, and it's only $400 right now.  Racing ironman on Jan 12 means the last weekend of the build phase is going to be Christmas weekend, then it makes for a tough time to go out binge drinking on New Year's.  But then, starting a new year with a fast ironman also has some appeal.  I've never been to Miami, but always heard great things about it and I have some friends down there that I haven't seen in a long time.  Setup doesn't produce a bad race.  This has some appeal.  But it still requires five levels of approval signatures and a mental acceptance.