This runner got himself an entry into the Chicago Marathon 2020!
I haven’t actually run a marathon since Melbourne in October 2016 (and that did not go well…) but it’s definitely the distance I am most interested in doing well at and when it came to setting goals for next year, a marathon was where I wanted my eventual focus to be. Some fortuitous timing has my wife scheduled for a conference just outside Chicago the week before the marathon takes places so how could I not try to get a start?
Unfortunately while ALL of my previous marathons qualify by time, they fall outside the allowed qualification period so I was left at the mercy of entering the lottery. Fear not though as my name was picked out of the digital hat. Hallelujah!
So, while it is rather a long way off (the race takes place October 11th 2020), mentally I feel like my preparation is beginning now. In the last few months I’ve been running relatively consistently, albeit at fairly low mileage even for me, but it is time to up that a little and make sure I am getting sessions done. Base fitness will need to become race fitness, first over shorter distances and eventually over the half and marathon. All the little extras that make the important 5-10% on top will need to be added in and get done consistently. My diet needs to get to the point where I lean out again (I am 10kg heavier than I was when I ran my marathon PB). All of these things and more will have to get done to even approach running the kind of time I’ve done previously and know I can do again.
Fortunately I don’t feel like I am lacking motivation, and having a major marathon as the carrot on the end of the stick will only help.
Comments