Goals for the Brighton Marathon

It’s that time again… my next marathon is almost here. My fourteenth marathon.

So normally when I write these things I’m quite vague and fluffy about my goals. I’d have several soft goals of remaining uninjured, having a bit of fun and probably aiming for a ballpark time of 3:45 or there abouts.

The “remain uninjured” will always be my first and foremost goal. No marathon is worth getting injured for in my opinion. I’ve been there and done that with my first Bournemouth Marathon and if I’m honest I fully regret pushing through. I don’t get warm fuzzy feelings from that one. But you live and learn (or at least I try to).

So this marathon, asides from my unchanged “remain uninjured” main goal, I do have fairly ambitious time goals this time. I had a moment of, “why not?” the other week as I found my training was going well and I’d clocked up some solid long runs (17 miles, 18 miles, 20 miles… the stuff that dreams are made of as far as I’m concerned when it comes to my marathon training).

I mean, I could run this marathon like I’ve run most of the others… take a few selfies, wave and smile at the supporters and take my time on the first 20 miles before thinking “OK maybe time to give it a blast”. And I’d manage to have gas left in the tank because I’d ran fairly comfortably.

But what would happen if I did actually go for it? Like set out with a ‘not-so-comfortable selfie-taking’ pace? I’m not talking about a ridiculous pace but something around 7:50s. Comfortable enough in theory, but for 26.2 miles…? Not as cushty as say 8.30s or 8.20s would be. And then if I have gas left, to push that further to 7.40s and maybe even 7.30s.

This is all very much blue sky thinking dreamworld scenario of course but I do want to put it out there that I’m considering going for it. My final decision will very much depend on how I feel on the day of course and then, if I do appear to feel good, how the first 8-10 miles feel. If it feels like it’s just too hard to maintain for the rest then I can accept defeat and either crawl miserably to the end of bring the pace back down and resume selfie-taking mode.

I realistically have nothing to lose (asides from some painful hours of my life in a living nightmare of a marathon). The Brighton Marathon isn’t a particularly special marathon. I’d never attempt something like this for a marathon like New York (later this year) because I want to actually enjoy New York (if possible) and see the sights and have a good time. Brighton? Well it’s relatively flat and realistically if it goes wrong I won’t cry about it because it’s, well, Brighton (no offence Brighton. I love you dearly as you know).

Now this is scary, throwing your goals down on paper for the world Internet to see and judge (OK, yeah no one cares but me…). My PB is 3:24:06 from the Liverpool Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon back in 2016. So to beat this I need to run roughly a 7.45min/mile pace. So my intention (very much intention I stress) is to head out at 7.50s and see what I can bring to the table later on. I won’t be upset if I don’t beat my PB. I’m very proud of it and if it remains my PB forever than that’s fine by me. But to beat it would be nice of course.

So my goals:

  • Remain uninjured
  • Gold Standard (if everything goes right on the day, angels sing, unicorns prance, cake drops from the heavens etc.): sub 3:24
  • Silver Standard: sub 3:30
  • Bronze Standard: sub 3:35
  • Everything’s gone to poo: all the selfies and make it to the finish

There we have it. Laid out bare. If it happens it happens. If it doesn’t, who cares? My self-esteem and happiness do not rest on this. It does however rest on the size of the cake I’ll be eating afterwards. Just saying.

Do you set yourself hard or soft goals?

Do you like to beat your PB’s regularly? Are they important to you?

Why do you run?

Collecting things

When I grew up I loved collecting things.

I would be the girl with 10 Tamagotchis. I had more pogs than I knew what to do with. I loved those rubber wrist bands (especially the ones filled with sparkly liquid). I had the Pokemon cards. Spice Girl photos. Gel pens. You name it, I collected it.

As I grew up (have I grown up? I don’t think so…), I stopped collecting things as much in that kind of childhood sense, but I still did things that allowed me to get my kick as a teenager. I played on game consoles and the computer, leveling up and collecting special items. Oh man I was a cool kid.

But then since going to university and then starting a Big Person Job though you just don’t do that sort of thing anymore really. No time, no space, no money. Oh hey adult life.

Then I started running. And my passion for collecting began once again. Races…medals…experiences. I’m not a race fanatic but I do enjoy doing different races about the place – enjoying new areas, seeing different places, meeting new people, getting a nice medal. It’s all good fun. I tend to dislike doing the same races over and over (though some are clearly worth it, hello Romsey Beer and Cake Race) because I like doing different ones. Collecting new ones, if you like.And marathons. Ahh marathons. Doing the Marathon Majors is collecting game for me. It’s a long game, don’t get me wrong, but ticking each one of the list is just something that I love to do. I don’t necessarily care about the times I get or if I break my PB. Nope. I just want to collect each medal and earn my bigger Six Star Medal at the end.And alongside that I’ve been trying to complete different parkrun challenges… get to 50, get to 100, get to 150, now get 20 different ones, now get all the letters of the alphabet, get to 200…250… tick off all the local ones, the Brighton ones, the Bristol ones, the Birmingham ones. Ahh call me a loser, call me a weirdo, but I so enjoy this kind of thing.

Most importantly, it keeps me motivated to run – and with that to be healthy and uninjured, work hard at the gym, take rest seriously, eat a balanced diet. It keeps me mentally healthy as well to not focus on smashing myself at every parkrun or race. It’s been a long while since I’ve felt disappointed about a parkun time. I remember when I first started running and every race I had to beat my last time, every parkrun had to be faster  – and if not, why not? Could I justify why I’d run so slowly? It really ground me down.

But now I’m happy to plod along, get my barcode scanned and add another one to my list. I see progress in a different way. Yes of course I want PB’s and fast times (damnit I want that sub-20 parkrun!) but it’s not everything for me. It’s not why I put my trainers on. Yes maybe this has been somewhat to my detriment when I’m not making “omg amazing” gains in my speed and I’m still no faster than I was when I started but I’m 100% happier with where I am, both body and mind.

I’ll make my progress in the ways that I enjoy. Alongside that I’ll pepper it with the occasional “hard goal” of a certain time but it won’t break my spirit if it doesn’t happen right away (or at all!), because along the way I’ll have other fun goals to tick off as I go that really only mean something to me.

And I’ve found as an adult you can still collect things. Don’t even get me started on my new found love of geocaching… ;-PDo you collect anything?

Why do you run?

Have you ever done geocaching? I’ve just gotten into it and I quite enjoy hunting around and trying to find different ones – the app is great!

Post Dubai Marathon and what’s next

As is probably patently clear, my Dubai Marathon experience wasn’t the best. It felt very tough, mentally and physically.Despite this, I’m actually really happy with my time (3:39:58). It was faster than expected. What was nice was that my body fell into a very natural rhythm and pace which I thankfully didn’t have to think too much about while I ran.

I’ve just realised I didn’t actually put my time in my race recap (I’ve updated it since). I had all the splits ready to insert through the text but clearly was too busy putting the selfies in! Whoops. But I guess this shows that times weren’t something that was weighing me down. In fact, I felt like I could probably have run without my watch and maintained that speed. I literally didn’t need to think about slowing down or running faster. My feet just found their perfect speed.Looking at my splits I was quite consistent, though you can tell where I went to the loo twice!I went at mile six (the beach bum saga) and then again at mile 13 (thankfully a proper loo this time).
I’m really happy with how I ran and that I could step it up at the end. I think I’ve just gotten myself into a really good place where I can judge my body and it’s capabilities. Like going out at 8 minute miles was not going to end well, but 8.30s felt good and left enough in the tank to step it up a bit at the end.

Interestingly I found this graph in Garmin that showed the rise in temperature (Fahrenheit annoyingly).Basically the marathon started around 13-15C and then increased to a high of 29 degrees towards the end! Blimey. But thankfully it was lower than that for the majority of the race.

So anyway. Number 13 ticked off the list! I had a lot of worries going into this one, mainly due to my calf. It had felt a bit rubbish leading up the race and I’d reduced back my running substantially so that the longest run I ran was a week after the Portsmouth Coastal Marathon (10.6 miles). I did do some lengthy sessions on the elliptical machine (up to 75 minutes) so that helped. But my actual running was really inconsistent and no further than six miles. Not ideal. And probably why after the marathon my legs felt VERY tired and achy, like they did when I ran my first marathon. Walking down steps was comical. Walking in general was tough!

Surprisingly though my calf felt fine during and after. I mean, I haven’t run yet so who knows what it’ll feel like in reality but at the moment I’m quietly hopeful.

What’s next then? 

Well, the next marathon is the Brighton Marathon and I would love to have a solid training run for that and give it a good stab. I love running marathons at whatever speed but I’d quite like one where I don’t have any issues leading up to it so I can give it a bit of welly and aim to be under 3.30 again. But we’ll see!

Between now and then I have the Reading Half Marathon (entries are still open!) which I’d quite like to use as a tuning-up race to see where my speed is. My best time there (I’ve run it twice) is 1:39:35, so getting a course PB would be nice and maybe nearing my PB (1:34:30) would be AWESOME. Again, depends on how my training goes and how it feels post Dubai. Also, I don’t like pressure as it’s a fun sucker so I’m quite relaxed about these goals.

Reading is 18th March so I have a solid seven weeks ahead of me. It’s a relatively flat course with great crowd support so I’m excited about giving it a bash again. I do only have 11 weeks now until my next marathon but I don’t want to rush jumping back into training. Mentally that’s quite tough and I want to get back to running without issue before any structured training gets started. I desperately want to do this one right! I don’t want to get injured.

If all goes well, when I am back into marathon training I’d like to get some solid long run training going and a bit of speed work (but not be silly about it – aim for once a week only). So if I do a speed session on Tuesday I don’t then blast out a parkrun. No rookie errors…

What races are you training for?

Have you ever done Reading?

Do you like having time goals?

New year new me?

Someone at work asked me what my New Year’s Resolutions were. I jokingly replied, “to run a marathon”. They laughed, they know my marathon addiction well.

But it did get me thinking about my plans for 2018. What would I like to achieve, races I want to run, and ultimately the memories I’d like to make. For me, life is all about those life experiences, good times and memories. So what’s on the horizon for me?

Run some more marathons

What a surprise, eh? I plan on doing three… if all is well of course and I’m not injured. I’d love to run more than three but I think I’ve been very lucky this year to run as many as I have and I shouldn’t think this is the norm (I’ve run five marathons this year! For me this is insanely good).IMG_9289

  • Dubai Marathon

This is literally right around the corner of course. Friday January 26th. I’d LOVE to get close to my PB or even beat it (3:24:06) but I really don’t want to stress myself out and put pressure on myself. I’ve said this many times before but I don’t run marathons to achieve a certain time. I run them because I love the whole experience. That said, if I could be the shape I’m in or better beforehand then naturally I’ll be running faster than I previously have anyway so who knows what will happen. I certainly won’t be busting my guts for over 3 hours. That’s not how I roll.

  • Brighton Marathon

A jolly down the beach! This is what I intend for this marathon. Lots of my club will be doing it so they’ll be a fun atmosphere and I love Brighton. I’ve never done this marathon but I know it’s a good one for supporters as the course loops back on itself a few times. Also my best friend’s hubby will be attempting his first marathon so they’ll be there 🙂

  • New York Marathon

Continuing my goal to do all the six Marathon Majors (I’ve done London, Berlin, Boston, Tokyo and still need NY and Chicago). If everything goes to plan I will be joining some other lovely bloggers on a trip to the big apple for this one.

Run a sub-20 parkrun

I say parkrun and not 5k because there really isn’t a chance in hell I’d sign up to do an actual 5k race. My PB currently stands at 20:06 but that’s from 2015. My closest attempt has been 20:18… can I crack it? I don’t know. Originally I was hoping to do this before the end of the year but, again, this is putting nasty pressure on myself for what is essentially a superfluous and pointless goal (no one but me cares about, it won’t make me a better runner, etc. etc.). I was on the ball with my speed workouts but then did a marathon and the fire has somewhat died a bit. I’ll have a crack at a few speedy parkruns and get back on to the speedwork next week but I’m not going to ruin myself over it.

Run a few more half marathons

My second favourite race distance. I have a few in the plan already and I’m quite excited. I have the Jersey Half Marathon in June (more on this later) and the Reading Half Marathon in March. I’ve done the Reading Half twice before and hadn’t really considered running it again until I got offered a blogger place, which obviously peaked my interest again. Reading is fairly near to me to make it quite a nice race to get to and it’s relatively flat. But most importantly it has a fantastic atmosphere and great support all round the course. It’s a huge event with I think around 15,000 runners. Yes it is running around Reading (not exactly the most scenic of the British towns) but it’s a great event with a stadium finish. After a few year’s break I’m ready to give it another stab.

As part of the Reading Half Marathon, I’m also taking part in the training day on Saturday 6th January. The training day (which you can be a part of too if you sign up! Check out their Facebook post for more info) has quite the line-up of exciting stuff for the day:

  • A group workout with the Townsend Twins
  • Pacing advice from Reading Half Marathon Pace Co-ordinator and fitness coach Ali Galbraith
  • A group run (to practise those pacing lessons!)
  • An injury prevention talk and cooldown from Jim at Berkshire Physio (I am MOST excited about this)
  • A Q&A at the end for any specific training/injury queries

Reading half training day - Twitter & FB no timetablePlaces are limited though, so you’ll need to be fast if this takes your fancy!

Parkrun Alphabet Challenge

This will be ongoing as I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it next year (due to that pesky Z being in Poland…) but it’s definitely going to be a focus for me. I hope to have ‘K’ ticked off in January and ‘J’ ticked off in June – which is the main reason I’m doing the Jersey Half Marathon, purely to get that J. It’s just time really for me to get around the place. But I do have a few friends to call in on to tick some off!IMG_0142So they’re my running plans for the year. Personal plans? Oh it might be nice to have a bit more success with dating but ehhh who knows. My motivation has dipped to a real low right now regarding that. I’m just busy with life and unless it happens organically (a word I detest) I’m actually going to have to put effort into it…more than I have been. It depresses me when I think too long about this situation, so I shan’t.

I think the MOST important goal is to have fun, enjoy life, run all the marathons and eat all the food.

What are your 2018 goals?

Do you have any races lined up yet?

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?