Limits and Possibilities

As 2013 starts to draw to a close and I look forward to 2014, I’ve been struck by both my limits and the possibilities for the next 12 months.

Next week, I am running my last ‘race’ of 2013, which qualifies for the 2014 New York Marathon. It’s 4 miles, and all I need to do is show up and finish. My prior two 4 mile runs much earlier this year clocked at 37:51 and 36:01, so a target of 35 mins, or 8:45/mile feels decent, if somewhat modest. Beyond that, the biggie is on January 26th, when I tackle my first half marathon. In 2014, I am going to run the 9+1 for guaranteed entry to the NYC Marathon in 2015, plus at least 4 of the 5 borough races which includes 3 half marathons (Manhattan Half, Brooklyn Half, Staten Island Half, Bronx 10 miles and Queens 10k).

Recently I ran just under 6.5 miles averaging less than 9 mins/mile. The idea is in 8 weeks I’ll be able to maintain that for 13.1 miles bringing me in just under 2 hours. Ideally I’d be running my first half at the start of March, another 4 weeks later, but the timing is good in some ways as I get to test myself early on.

I’ve also started hitting a nearby track to start to work on speed – again some limits and possibilities are showing here. I can run a 6 mins/mile at least for 400m at a time – again, modest but a starting point. I’m always weary that kicking too hard might pull my back out of sorts. Being injury free so far  has been encouraging and a great platform to keep building on.

So, let’s see out 2013… and prep for that half marathon.