Marathon Goal Pace

First of all, THANK YOU for all your kind words about my news yesterday! Leaving work turned out to be very emotional — I cried several times, completely unexpectedly — and it was so great to have your support.

Now, here’s the scoop on my first run as an unemployed person / first run of December / second-to-last run of marathon training:

My plan was to run an easy four miles at marathon goal pace, which is about 9:40, plus or minus 10 seconds. I wanted to memorize what this pace feels like because even though I’ll be wearing my Garmin, I know how easy it is to get caught up in the excitement of a race and accidentally blow out the first few miles. Slow and steady!

I’m really happy with this as my goal pace because it feels like a decent clip without tiring me out quickly, and I did most of my long runs at this pace…

* Oct. 15: 16 miles — 9:39 pace

* Oct. 22: 12 miles — 9:33 pace

* Oct. 29: 18 miles — 9:41 pace

* Nov. 5: 14 miles — 9:12 pace (OK, so this was fast — I blame Kory)

* Nov. 13: 20 miles — 9:46 pace

* Nov. 20: 12 miles — 9:03 pace (this one, too — I blame Meg)

The finish time for running a marathon at 9:40 pace is 4:13:15.

So that’s the plan for the first half of the race, and depending on how I feel, I may try to drop a few seconds per mile for the remaining half. I know that sounds like CRAZY TALK to some of you, but, uh, welcome to my blog. I’m just crazy enough.

I talked with Don (my mom’s boyfriend) recently about the marathon and he was completely confident I’d meet and likely demolish any goal I set for myself.

“What if I hit the wall?” I asked.

He said, “No problem. I’ve seen you push through a wall. Remember that time you said you were going to do 10 pushups and then you did 10 pushups? You had already decided you were going to do them, so there was no other option.”

So remember that, Tumblr friends, as you pack your glitter eyeshadow and shiny shirts for Vegas this weekend. Decide in advance to kick the shit out of your race. Prepare to go into beast mode. The only option is total domination!