Running With Jack

Last night I had to work an hour longer, so one of my coworkers drove me home. Of course he was also a friend of mine, so we had to stop for the obligatory beer on the way home, which lead to a couple hours of ranting and raving about the problems of the world, which meant by the time I got home my wife was already done with her school work and looking for companionship – so I decided to postpone my run until tonight (Friday). As I only plan on a 45-minute easy run this is no major problem, I still have a day of rest planned for Saturday, which should leave me ready to run a good race on Sunday.

Sunday’s half-marathon is in Hambrucken, a town about a 20-minute drive from our house. Several of my running club are going to run the 5K or 10K the same morning, so it should be fun. The course is flat, with a good mix of asphalt, gravel and improved forest paths. The HM, 10K and 5K all run together for the first few kilometers, so it could be crowded at the beginning. The weather prediction is cool temperatures in the 60’s (F) and rain. So really anything goes.

Hambrucken from the air:

I would like to break my current 1:48:12 personal record on Sunday, but like every race I have multiple goals in mind:

A race-of-my-life goal: Run the race in 1:45:00 or less
A good-race goal: < 1:48:12 (new PR)
A not-so-good-race goal: >1:48:12-1:55:00
A should-have-stayed-home goal: >1:55:00

My strategy is simple, break out of the 5K/10K pack and find my groove, hopefully around 5:00/K (8:00/M), and hold it until the end. Oh, and run the last kilometer like my butt's on fire!