Chicago GOAL!
I have a request: leave a comment here with your running goal. It does not have to be specific to the marathon or a time. I told you mine and now I want to hear yours.
Thank you everyone for your inspiration and input on my marathon goal. As you can see, I decided to go with 3:17. Originally, (before asking you all) my goal was 3:20, but then I was thinking wouldn’t it be great to get in the teens, so how about 3:19:59. But, after all the encouragement and confidence you all gave me, I decided to go with 3:17. That would be a 9 minute PR, so I think this is a good, reachable, and challenging goal.
I’m super anxious but very excited. I’m someone who always loves a challenge and like I said before, I KNOW I can run the 26.2 miles so how about putting a time challenge on myself. And, that I did. I’m looking forward to training hard and seeing what happens on 10-10-10.
How about you? What are your goals? Are you running your first marathon?
If you are running your first, I’d suggest you set your goal to finish the race. Unless you are an experienced runner, I think it is best to experience what the marathon is all about and not worry about what the clock reads when you cross the finish line.
Certainly, crossing the marathon finish line is very satisfying, even if your body is complaining all over! Your first thought might be, I’m not doing that again. But by the next day you’ll be thinking, if I’d only had a slightly better second half I would have been well under my marathon goal.
Even if you do have a goal time in mind for your next race, be sure to have a Plan B. You never know what can happen on race day, so prepare yourself to another plan if you have to. The weather , your stomach, aches, and pains are all factors you have no control over. If something unusual comes up, be ready to re adjust your goal.
I recommend you write your goal on a piece of paper of 3×5 card and keep it in a place where you will see it often throughout the day. This is powerful. The process of physically seeing your goals helps crystallize them in your mind. This process also better enables you to commit to them.
Interesting Fact: A popular Harvard Business School study once found that only 3% of the population records their goals in writing. Another 14% have goals but don’t write them down, whereas 83% do not even have clearly defined goals. More interesting is that this 3% earned an astounding ten times that of the 83% group.
Perhaps you want to consider what I did and change your facebook profile picture to the one like I did. I used the photo above as my profile pic on my run with Jill fanpage. Let me tell you it took a lot of nerve for me to do this, but now that I communicated my goal with all of you, I’m way more motivated and determined to reach my goal.
In the end, goals provide direction, long-term vision and short-term motivation. They separate the important from the irrelevant. Goals also build self-confidence by helping you grow as an individual.
Take a minute now to write down your goal here in the comment section and TELL ME!
Posted by admin | in Marathon, Mind Set, Uncategorized | 25 Comments
3:55 Winthrop Marathon.
Not a fast time, but one I think I can run. I am playing catch up in my training for this race and it’s only a moth away.
3:45 Seattle Marathon. Baring anymore setbacks, I want to finish my first year of running with a good time on a tough marathon course!
Fantastic! You can do it!
I decided to run a half marathon instead of a full since I just started running this spring. My goal for the Oct. 10 event is 2:24, finishing strong and uninjured so that I can continue training for another half in the winter. My long-term goal is to train for and run the full marathon NEXT October.
Good luck with your marathon!
Julie
@Julie: excellent goal and you are very smart by not going into running gradually….you will save yourself from injury! I’ll let you know when I finish Chicago and perhaps that will be the one you do next year.
@Clint: you are being very realistic and SMART with your goals. Seattle is a tough course, but I managed to get my best time on this one. Just gotta hope for decent weather that day. You never know in November. Good luck in Winthrop
My Chicago goal is 3:20 … and keeping with the usual accepted range, that can extend all the way up to 3:20:59. That will be an 8-minute PR for me, improving on the mark I set at Chicago last year.
To support your comment about the Harvard B School study, I completely agree that stating your goal broadly helps make it happen. Last year, my goal was 3:28, which was a pie in the sky goal, given my PR, set waaaaay back in 2000, was 3:47. But I BELIEVED I could do it, and I had a mantra to support it: “3:28 will be great.”
This year, my mantra is “Three two oh . . . GO! GO! GO!” Sure, mantras can be corny, but at mile 23, I need something short, simple and direct.
Good luck, Jill, hitting your 3:17! Fingers crossed for great weather like we had in 2009.
Thanks DP. Perhaps we will be side-by-side in Chicago
My Portland Marathon Goal is 3:30. My last marathon was 10 years ago, at 3:38.
My goal is 3:45 for the Columbus Marathon. I’m using a training plan that says I should be able to run 3:38, but my best so far (out of three) is only 3:59. I feel more comfortable with the extra 7 minutes considering it will be an almost 15 minute PR. I’ve stated it publicly, now I’m going to go get it.
Go Bill, Go!
Shannon: I’ve gotten better with age so I’m confident you have too
my chicago marathon goal is to finish with feet in tact. my original time goal was 3:50 but given it’s my FIRST marathon and i’m battling toe blisters, blood blisters on the ball of my foot as well as right ankle pain, i’m not sure it’s a good idea to push my pace. thus, plan B is to finishing around the 4 hour mark. i did 16.5 in the hills of Vermont on Saturday in 2:31 so 4 hours provided feet/ankles are cooperate seems very attainable. My stretch goal is to finish given it’s my first marathon. While the competitor in me wants to set some time goal, I know my feet and soul need me to run for fun and to learn what it feels like to run 26.2!
see you in chicago jill.
gheesh, i can’t type: plan B is to FINISH and feet/ankles cooperate (no ARE)
3:30 in Portland, right Shannon?! Yeee HAAAWWWWW!
I hope I can better than I can spell since I mistyped my own name! LOL!
My goal for Chicago will be to finish the race. Its my first marathon and I am not setting a time for myself. I want to just enjoy the experience.
Chad: Smart goal. Wish I’d had that same goal for my first then I probably would have enjoyed the experience. Hope to meet you when I’m there!
Plan A) Finishing my first marathon in December and having a good time doing it. Plan B) Doing it in under 4 hrs. We’ll have to see how the day goes.
Good luck Jill. I admire your great mental and phyical strengh!
Awesome goal Jill and all!
I will set mine for beating PR @ Boston (<3:37).
Sub-3:20. I’ll be running a week before you at the Smuttynose Marathon in New Hampshire. My best at this point is a 3:30, which I ran at Providence 2 weeks after running a 3:32 at Boston. I was lucky enough to essentially be handed a legit number for Boston 2010. My hope is that I will be able to qualify on my own for 2011. If I do BQ at Smuttynose, I hope to run NYC 5 weeks later ~3:30…otherwise, I may be pushing at another attempt at 3:20.
I’m by far the slowest of all the people that posted, but since this is my first marathon my #1 goal is to finish the race. I have been following the training schedule and would be happy to cross under 5 hours. That seems like such a long time. So far the most I have run is 18 miles, which I just completed this past weekend. I can tell you that I’m exhausted after 3.5 hours so running another 1.5 hours seems extreme, but I still have til 10/10/10 for Chicago. I really want to come away enjoying the event. Good luck to everyone!!
St. George Utah
October 2
3:53
This would be a 3 minute PR
Kathy: you so got it!
I am going to run my 3rd marathon this year. Just coming off an ankle injury after running two marathons back to back in May. I will run Portland but no BQ this time around just want to finish.
My goal is to run a 3:30 at the Mardis Gras Marathon in Feb 2011. It will be my first marathon. I ran the Seattle Half Marathon in 1:40 in June. It was my first half marathon. I have six months to train so I think it is realistic to get the 3:30. Good luck with your 3:17.
hi jill,
i wanted to give you an update on my columbus marathon results. back on august 23, i told you in a comment on this very blog post that i wanted to run 3:45. well, i blew it out of the water and hit 3:37:50 – a 21+ minute PR. i trained hard with some runners who were faster than me. the course was flat and fast. and the weather was a perfect 48F and clear at start (maybe i bit less sun would have been more perfect, but nobody would ever complain about these conditions). i ran with the 3:40 pacer until mile 22 and then still feeling strong sped up for the last 4 miles. i ran negative splits and according to the official results, i passed 257 runners in the final 10k while only be passed by 6! http://www.mtecresults.com/runner/show?rid=2042&race=167
in only my 4th marathon, i can’t even imagine a better experience. while i had major struggles in all of the first three (my second a DNF), i almost feel guilty about having such a great race. there was no wall. in fact, i got faster after 20 mile mark. now i’m anxious to shoot for sub-3:30 in a spring marathon.
thank you, jill, for all of your motivating and inspiring posts!