CIM Goals

You might think that since I haven’t really been training for the California International Marathon, that I might not have any goals for the day, but you, my friend, would be wrong.  I always have goals, even if they’re as simple as “Don’t suck too much.”  Which, by the way, is exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish on Sunday.

Yep.

To recap, I pretty much stopped running anything longer than three miles at a time back in July.  Within the last month, I’ve been able to add some mileage to my long run, making it all the way to 14 miles.  For the mathematically challenged among us, that is just slightly over half of what I will be running this Sunday.  So, yeah.  Totally prepared.

Longtime readers will note that of the nine marathons I’ve started, the three for which I was best prepared and fully trained resulted in two DNFs and one Personal Worst.  Honestly, I am starting to think training for a marathon is completely overrated.

Here’s what I think I can make happen at this year’s CIM:

• Don’t drown.  This is always #1.  Even though we’re having a super rainy week, Sunday’s forecast looks absolutely glorious:  50-ish degrees at the start, maybe some clouds, only a 10% chance of rain and a high of 63 for the day.
• Walk and run.  Notice I put the “walk” first.  There will be plenty of that.
• Enjoy the day.  Last year, I was so focused on my splits and the tangents and fueling (all of which went down in flames!) that I didn’t have any fun at all.  That was no bueno.
• The previously mentioned Don’t suck too much.  I feel pretty confident about this one because my bar is set very, very low.  Like I think one of my legs would have to fall off.  I mean, knock on wood, but my legs feel pretty securely attached.
• Ummmmmm, that’s it really.  Time goals are irrelevant at this point, though I have a window of about an hour (4 to 5 hours) that I think I can hit.  We’ll see.

Do you still set goals for races you haven’t trained for??