My goals for the NY Marathon
The number one question I’ve gotten over the past four months of training for the marathon is, “do you have a time goal?” For someone who only ever dreamed of running this race, the question first seemed audacious to me. Certainly, if you asked me at the time I first ever thought about running this race, all I would have said is that I want to finish while they are still giving out medals. Still, training for this race has changed me. It has prepared me to get that medal and dared me to reach for more.
But it turns out, “more,” is not a time goal – it’s a feeling. What I’ve come to find in my own running journey – which has been one that’s tested all of my limits and pushed me beyond anything I’ve done before – is that, in the end, it’s no different than any other part of my longer journey. It’s all about winning the day! And for my New York City Marathon, here’s what that means . . .
I’ve now passed the peak of training. I hope to post once more before the race and will conclude this marathon series of blog posts with my final thoughts after whatever happens on November 2. But as I sit here, all of the hard work is done. I ran the longest run of the plan on Saturday – 20 miles (which I will discuss in more detail below) – and I am now in the tapering phase. After all the highs and lows of the past four months, I know what my body is capable of. I know what time is possible and what likely is not.
When I started training, I had a finishing number in mind. It was one that I could not have done if I tried to run 26.2 miles at the time, but one that I could train for. It was a pace that I could do on some long runs during the early days of training to feel the pain of pushing myself faster, and hopefully, one that I could get used to running for longer distances without pain.
Here's what I wrote in the first post of my marathon series:
“[D]eep down, I also realized that I want to finish the race in the best possible time I could achieve, and I dream of finishing in less than five hours. Would I feel shattered if it takes me longer? Not a chance. I could cross the finish line in the dark with the runners in the back and fulfill my biggest dreams as long as someone is still handing out medals when I get there. But . . . if I put absolutely everything I have into this training, then no matter where I finish, I will know that I not only reached the dream of crossing the finish line, but I also will have crossed it in the shortest amount of time that I possibly could – whatever that may be.”
Now 17 weeks later, that same process that has taught me to reach for the sky has also enlightened me about what exactly I am striving for on marathon Sunday. It has taught me much more about what it will mean to win the day than I could have known when this all started. Throughout my training program, I’ve experienced both the struggle of pushing my body beyond what I thought it could do and the freedom of feeling like I could run forever. And here’s what I’ve learned.
While I love seeing what my body can achieve when pushing it to reach new heights, the best feeling I get from running is when I am out there and don’t even realize I’m doing it. That happened to me on Saturday’s run. Ironically, it happened on a run where I also had a time goal in mind. I wanted to see if I could finish the 20 miles in under 3:48:00. That would include stopping to fill my water bottle (which I did twice) and going to the restroom (which I didn’t need). My Strava app always tells me my moving pace, but this time, I focused on whether my overall pace, with stops, could be less than 11:25 per mile. After all, this would be my dress rehearsal for Marathon Sunday, and it was time to see if a sub-five-hour marathon was on the table.
For the first 10 miles of the run, I was just ahead of the pace, but I fell behind it a bit after making my first stop for water. I then ran into my friend Sarah doing her long run with the guides from Achilles, and that’s always a worthy moment to slow down and say hi. We ran together for a bit, as we told the guides about our time together in the park – something I’ve posted about on my Instagram . . .
I made one final stop for water just after mile 16, and at that point, I was about 5 seconds per mile off pace – which would have had me finish about two minutes past my target. But here’s the thing. While I was aware of this pace all along, it’s not what I was thinking about during the run. Around mile six, I found a space where I wasn’t thinking about anything at all but the next step in front of me. I knew that any time I target for 20 miles could only be reached if I ran comfortably for most of it. Those first six miles were spent asking myself if I was comfortable, and once I found it, I lost myself in it. I honestly have almost no recollection of the next 10 miles except for my time with Sarah and the stops for water. I barely even noticed it was raining, but when I did, it was to embrace it.
With less than four miles to go, I snapped out of it and realized that I had just a bit more than a 5K to run, and I felt great. Yes, I was off pace, but there were no more stops, and I knew I had more to give. It was time to try to beat my goal. I ran mile 18 at 10:54 (my 5th fastest of the day), then mile 19 at 10:24 (my fastest), and mile 20 at 10:29 (my second fastest) to finish 30 seconds faster than my target.
It felt great to beat my number, but something else felt even better. I realized during this 20-mile run that my ideal pace was determined not by putting a number on it, but rather by running at the pace that my body dictated was right for that day. There are just some days that I am faster than others. Every run has its own number, and the process of working that out to find that comfortable place where I lose myself in the moment is what it’s all about. Doing that on race day is my top priority.
On my best day, I know that number is just under five hours for 26.2 – and not by much. But that’s not the number for every run on any day. On marathon day, it might be over five hours. That said, I’m not going into the marathon entirely without any goal of shooting for sub-five. If I get to mile 22 feeling good, and it is within reach, then I’ll push it if I can. But up to that point, doing anything other than taking it all in from the scenery on the bridges to the crowds on the streets would be a disservice to my journey. Most of all, I want to experience this race with anyone who comes out to cheer me on. Those selfies we’ll take are what will win the day more than any time goal.
Now that the toughest days of training are behind me, I realize that the time goal I set was all about training for it. The most important line above from my first blog in the marathon series was this: “. . . if I put absolutely everything I have into this training, then no matter where I finish, I will know that I not only reached the dream of crossing the finish line, but I also will have crossed it in the shortest amount of time that I possibly could – whatever that may be.”
As I sit here writing this post, I can already say that I did it! I’m faster than I was when I started the program. Whatever I run the marathon at will be faster because of all that I’ve put into these past four months. That was the goal!
But right now, I have another destination in mind. Not one that is about time, but rather the experience. It’s what it will take to win the day on November 2. So, instead of answering the question of what my time goal is, here is the answer simply to where I hope this journey takes me on race day . . .
Have fun.
Finish.
Stop and take selfies with everyone who came out to cheer me on.
Be willing to run another marathon after this one is all over.
Win the day!
A few weeks ago, I wrote about what the screenplay of my marathon story looks like. At the time, I was dealing with a torn labrum in my hip and had no idea if running this race would even be possible. I mentioned different possible endings to this movie that compared to other great sports movies. But out of those possible endings, the one dearest to my path here is Rocky. The movie was about going the distance. That’s all I ever wanted when I first dreamed of running this race and to approach this race any other way would be audacious after all. Now that I’ve already achieved so much more than I ever asked for even before crossing the finish line, all that I want to make this race day about is the experience of finishing it – along with the hopes of a sequel to follow!
Aaron
Total miles run per week of training:
Week before training began: 15.2 miles
Week 1: 23 miles
Week 2: 20.7 miles
Week 3: 23.2 miles
Week 4: 20.6 miles
Week 5: 25.75 miles
Week 6: 24.2 miles
Week 7: 27.8 miles
Week 8: 22.4 miles
Week 9: 29.2 miles
Week 10: 24.0 miles
Week 11: 9.95 miles
Week 12: 0 miles
Week 13: 0 miles
Week 14: 26.55 miles
Week 15: 30.0 miles
Week 16: 25.7 miles
Week 17: 29.05 miles
See the links below for the other posts in my marathon training series:
Inside my “official” marathon training – 20 weeks to race day!
Know when to say when – a little about marathon training and a bit more about life