OC Marathon Goals

Sunday is the OC Marathon, aka my third marathon!

I'm pretty excited about it, although I must confess, a touch nervous as well.

My first marathon experience in November 2011 was full of cramps, unexpected knee twinges, and all around negative stuff after a week of being sick leading up to the marathon.  So when I think back on that marathon experience, the idea of a marathon makes me a little scared.  Here's the race report from the Richmond Marathon.

Richmond Marathon was a fuzzy, uncomfortable blur.

My second marathon experience in December 2011 was full of mental relaxation, running way faster than I had thought I was capable of, and relative physical comfort.  So when I think back on that marathon experience, I get a little warm and fuzzy.  Here's the race report from the Rehoboth Marathon (Warning: it makes me get a little teary eyed when I read it.)

Sobbing with legit shock and disbelief
at the end of the Rehoboth Marathon.

So I enter this third marathon, with unknown expectations.

I'm hoping it's not as bad as my first and that it is closer on the spectrum to my second...

But I am prepared for whatever happens!

I've already qualified for Boston, so I can relax and not have that goal on the forefront of my mind.  So maybe that'll help me relax a little bit?

My simple goals are:
-run this race and feel like I gave it my biggest effort
-try to beat my time from the Rehoboth Marathon

I'm not 100% sure if my training is adequate to beat my previous marathon time, because the long run training team that I did this spring was geared towards the Boston Marathon, so I peaked a little while ago, but I've tried to keep the training up with a long run and some miscellaneous mileage that I've made up as I've gone along...so we'll see!  I won't know unless I try!!

Do you like to set solid goals for your races?
I like to set goals that won't put deathly external pressure on me because I know that is counter-productive for my mind.  When I say a goal like "give it my all", I really mean it.  It's hard to pin down numbers because there are so many factors that go into a race.  McMillan says I should be running a pretty fast marathon based on my most recent 10K of 42:44 a few weeks ago, but now that I am NOT there yet, perhaps next year!  Usually I feel like McMillan is an accurate predictor for me, but that one is too ambitious for me at this point.

Oh and I forgot to mention, my #1 goal this time around is to have a little fun, after all, I am on vacation in California!