Running Bug Biting Harder

Well, as I prepare for my next half marathon this weekend I set up 3 goals.  My first goal (which is normally the "easy - I can do this" goal) is to finish in under 3 hours.  My last half marathon time was a little over 3:08, and given that I've trained better this time around and have dropped about 40+ lbs. since then, that should definitely be doable.

My second goal (which is normally the goal that I expect to be a little more difficult but can push for goal) would be to finish in under 2:54.  That would be averaging 13 minutes per mile for the entire 13.1 mile course.  I averaged a little less than 15 minutes per mile back in May, so that would mean bringing my average per mile pace down quite a bit, but something that I also think is doable.

My third goal (which is normally the hardest of the goals) is to finish in under 2:44:40, which would mean averaging about a 12:34 per mile pace.  That would also mean that I would finish this as my 2nd fastest half marathon.  I have been able to maintain a pace better than that for my 10 mile run, so I'm hoping I can maintain it for the full 13.1.

After finishing this half marathon I will jump right back in to training for the next half marathon that will be coming up on October 21.  The Columbus Half Marathon is a terrific course with a lot of crowd support.  I ran the full marathon in Columbus back in 2009, but the second half of that course did not have nearly the amount of crowd support that the first half had, which can make for a long run.

After finishing that half marathon I will jump right back in to a training program, but I've now got to re-evaluate that.  I am going to be running the Las Vegas Half Marathon in December.  I had originally planned to finish up Columbus and jump back in to my half marathon training, which I might still do.

However, yesterday the running bug bit a little harder, and I signed up to run the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February.  No, not a half marathon this time, but a full 26.2.  With no other races, I would typically start training for a full marathon 20 weeks out, meaning late September.  So, the question I have now is...do I fall in to the middle of marathon training and use Las Vegas as my long training run for that week?  OR  Do I do half-marathon training to prepare for Las Vegas and then jump in to full marathon training following that?  I'm not yet sure how that will play out since right now I'm training to run the full half marathon for Columbus, but plan to do the Myrtle Beach Marathon as a 5 minute run/1 minute walk marathon.  It may be October before I figure this one out, but we'll see what happens.