Just One Marathon

Not Making the Grade ... For Now

Lately, living my life is really getting in the way of blogging about my life.

For the past … oh … million years, I’ve been studying for a university certificate in human resources. I was loving the latest course on “Managing Change” until I handed in my most recent assignment – and got it back from the professor unmarked. She felt I hadn’t met the criteria for the assignment. I thought I had, but what I think doesn’t really matter much in this case. Just like in running, sometimes in life you just have to suck it up and keep going. And this is one of those times.

 

So, I’ve been spending all my free time recently sucking all the life and creativity from the assignment and replacing it with a pointless and mind-numbing regurgitation of the course text. Oops, did that sound bitter?

 

Anyways, between that and the small matter of the 30K race I’m running this Sunday in Hamilton, there hasn’t been much time for blogging. And that makes me cranky. But until I actually get a handle on “Managing Change: The Course”, I’m probably going to be getting a barely-passing grade on “Managing Change: Real Life”. 

The Art of Lowered Expectations

At the top of my training schedule for Around the Bay, I listed the following goals:

Completion time: 2 hrs, 43 minutes

Average pace: 5:27 mins/kilometre

 

I don’t know what mood-altering substance I was imbibing when I wrote those numbers, but I’ve definitely had time to sober up during my last couple of long runs.

 

Truth is, I’m a lot slower.

 

Truth is, I’ve been skipping runs like crazy.

 

Truth is, I’ll be lucky to finish in one piece.

 

Lucky for me, in my three years as a runner, I have managed to acquire an extremely important skill that I’m going to deploy right now: the ability to lower the bar. The way I figure it, running Around the Bay at the end of March is just a way of getting me out and training through the winter months, running longer miles and preparing me to make a spirited attempt at a super-fast half marathon in May. And if that’s the case, then just finishing the race is an accomplishment. So my new goals are as follows:

 

Completion time: 3 hours, 15 minutes

Average pace: 6:30 mins/kilometre

 

The sad thing is, this goal is still a huge stretch for me. My long run pace has been averaging around 6:50. So I’ll be weeping tears of joy if I manage a 3:15 finish. Or just weeping. Either way, I figure it’s mission accomplished.