GOAL RACE PREVIEW

     Sunday I will be toeing the line at my hometown race, The Owens Corning Half Marathon presented by The Medical Mutual Glass City Marathon, for my 3^rd half marathon.  My first half-marathon was the Detroit Free Press International Half Marathon where I ran a 2:23:41 @ 10:58 per mile avg.  A little less than a month later I ran the Monroe Half Marathon in 2:13:46 @ 10:12 per mile avg.  My first I was just committed to finishing the race and enjoying the experience, but the 2^nd I really wanted to see what I could do and pushed myself to where I had absolutely nothing left in my tank when I finished.

     Sometime after the Monroe Half I was listening to another Runner Academy podcast featuring guest Dr. Stan Beecham (click here for link).  Dr. Beecham was talking about how most people don’t reach their full potential not because of their training, talents or physical abilities but because of their mind.  One point he made that stuck with me was not to make multiple race day goals.  Meaning don’t say this is my “A” goal but if I don’t hit that my “B” goal is this, all that does is give you an out and you may not train as hard to hit your “A” goal.  He recommends picking a goal that you may only have a 60% chance of making, meaning a 40% chance of failure.  If you make it awesome but if you come up short that doesn’t mean you’re a failure it just means it wasn’t your day.  So to put it into perspective:  My goal for this race is a sub 2 hour, so anything 1:59:59 or better.  My current PR is 2:13:46, so if I hit my goal, great, but if I don’t and come in at say 2:04, I am not a failure I still set a new PR.  The failure would be if I played it safe and didn't even try to hit a sub 2 in the first place.  Now to be completely honest there was some time over the winter that I was beginning to doubt that I could pull off a sub 2 at this race, but after a great set at Ragnar and killing my 5K time my confidence has increased dramatically.  I know I have zero guarantees that I will reach my goal, but I will have a hell of good time trying! 
     The Glass City Marathon has been around since 1971 and while it has gone through several changes in course routes and locations around the city of Toledo, Ohio, it has found its way back to where it all began.  Currently the races starts out on the campus of the University of Toledo, I'm told it makes its way around some of the prettiest and historic areas of Toledo.  You are then brought back on campus running into the UT Rockets football stadium, the Glass Bowl, finishing on the 50 yard line.  The Half Marathon will follow the same route as the Marathon until, I believe, around mile 8 at which time we will break off on our own course back to the stadium.  The Marathon course has been touted as flat and fast, so for those of you that have dreams of qualifying for Boston, this is a great place to do it.  The Glass City Marathon is put on by the local running club, the Toledo Roadrunners, and they sure do put on a class act full of events for all ages.

Marathon: 2000 runners

Half Marathon: 3000 runners

5 person Marathon Relay: 250 teams

5K: 2000 runners/walkers

Kids Race: unlimited

     So far the weather forecast is looking promising with partly cloudy skies, 10% chance of rain, and temperatures of 58H/40L.  On Saturday I will head to the University campus to pick up my bib, packet and check out the expo.  Now I have only previously done the 5K but I will say that the only let down of this event is the expo.  Now to be fare the only other expo I have been to is the Detroit Marathon which I would expect to be better considering the larger market and size of the race. 

     Last year when I ran the 5K, which was only my second race to date, I was very impressed with layout.  I thought I would throw up a couple pictures from last year.

     I have a couple of friends also running the Half, a friend running on a relay team and her sister is running her first Marathon.  It should be a great weekend and a great race no matter what time I finish in!