Fresh off my first marathon yesterday, I'm eager to set a new life goal that is even more daunting than my first marathon. I hereby publicly commit myself to running the Boston Marathon in April 2012.
This goal is slightly more complicated than the last one - in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I have to run a marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes. For a bit of reference, I ran the race of my life yesterday at an 8:42 min/mile pace. For a Boston qualifying time, I need to run each and every mile at a 7:15 min/mile pace. Ahhh!
This feels extremely challenging and slightly crazy - which is exactly where I want to be. I felt the same before deciding to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and the 1st marathon, so I just need to create a plan, and stick to it. The Boston race will be especially significant for me, as it happens to take place on the day of 32nd birthday (April 16, 2012) and it will be Day 1,000 from Day 1 (technically Day 995, but close enough :-).
Thank you again to everyone for the congratulatory calls, texts, emails, tweets, and "likes". You inspire me to push harder.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Day 365: Mission Accomplished
One year ago today, I wrote a blog entry (Day 1), where I set a goal to run the SF Marathon one year from that point, in less than 4 hours. This was a slightly audacious goal, since I had never ran more than a couple miles before, and was very out of shape. But alas, I'm pleased to report that I did it!
Today's race was filled with memorable moments, including running across the Golden Gate, drum circles, gongs, live rock bands, Hip-hop DJs, and crossing the finish line. Some of my fellow runners included an elvis impersonator with a vuvuzela and a guy dressed as a Trojan warrior (metal shield and armor). For myself, I was cheered on by my parents and pushed my running pace from a planned 9:00 min/mile to an average 8:42 for the course, which added up to 3:48:01 for the day - 12 minutes better than my 4:00:00 goal. Although I'm quite sore, stiff, and tired (woke up at 4:30 AM!), I'm thrilled to have successfully completed my first marathon, especially with a time that surprised me. We'll see what's next, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning...
Today's race was filled with memorable moments, including running across the Golden Gate, drum circles, gongs, live rock bands, Hip-hop DJs, and crossing the finish line. Some of my fellow runners included an elvis impersonator with a vuvuzela and a guy dressed as a Trojan warrior (metal shield and armor). For myself, I was cheered on by my parents and pushed my running pace from a planned 9:00 min/mile to an average 8:42 for the course, which added up to 3:48:01 for the day - 12 minutes better than my 4:00:00 goal. Although I'm quite sore, stiff, and tired (woke up at 4:30 AM!), I'm thrilled to have successfully completed my first marathon, especially with a time that surprised me. We'll see what's next, but I have a feeling this is just the beginning...
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