Today I ran the 2006 Boulder Backroads 1/2 Marathon. But before I tell you how I did, let me start from the beginning. When I decided to run the NY Marathon sometime last year, I had what I considered to be a big goal. I wanted to finish in under four hours, knocking about 19 minutes off my marathon PR back in 2000. I knew it would be tough, but I was up for the challenge.

I started training in July. About a week later, I hired a trainer to give me some pointers. She told me to aim a little higher. She said that I should have a secondary goal of qualifying for Boston. This would mean a 3:45 marathon (an 8:30 pace). This seemed totally unachievable to me. I thought the nine minute pace was going to be a stretch.

I started training like I had never trained before: with a purpose. I was running mile repeats (a lot of them) at a 7:30 pace. I was doing long tempo runs at a 7:45 pace, both things I could never imagine doing just a few weeks before.

I scheduled the Boulder Backroads 1/2 marathon into my training plan. I thought it would be a decent indicator of whether I could actually achieve the 3:45 time goal. I had been training well.

Last week I did a 20 mile run at a 9:30 pace. The first 15 miles went well, but I felt terrible the last five. I started to think, "how could I ever achieve this goal, if I feel this bad after a 20 miler at a 9:30 pace?" I was starting to get really concerned about the 1/2 marathon which was only a week and three days away at that point.

I ran 10 1/2 mile hill repeats last Sunday. They went well and I felt pretty good. I spent the rest of the week tapering. I ran an easy five on Tuesday, and ran in the pool hard for about an hour on Thursday. I took Friday and Saturday completely off.

The weekend of the race I was more nervous than I have ever been before an event. I realized that I had made a critical mistake. I had done plenty of running at a fast pace, and plenty of running at a slow pace, but NO runs at race pace. Plus, I didn't even know what my 1/2 marathon pace should be. Until Friday before the 1/2 I was planning on attempting 8:30s. I had no idea what an 8:30 pace felt like, not to mention the fact that I had no idea whether I could hold that pace over 13 miles.

Saturday before the race (yesterday) I started looking at pace calculators on line. Most of them say that to get an accurate marathon time, you can multiply your 1/2 mary time by two and add ten minutes. This would mean I'd have to run between an 8:00 and 8:10 pace during the 1/2. Was this even possible?

My nerves were caused by a lack of preparation. Sure I had trained a lot, but I didn't know what race pace would feel like. People kept telling me to follow my plan. What plan?

I decided to set three goals so I wouldn't be disappointed. My first was to finish in under two hours, pretty doable. My second was to finish in 1:51, an 8:30 pace. My third was to finish around 1:46, about an 8:05 pace. I knew this one was a stretch, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Race morning was great. At the 8:00 a.m. start it was probably around 40 degrees, and sunny. The race guy yelled "go" and I was off. The race wasn't chipped timed, so I started near the front. It took me 13 seconds to cross the start line. I was caught up in the crowd, so I couldn't take off like a rocket (a good thing). I did my first mile in 8:28. I was feeling pretty good. I did the next few miles at right around 8:00. I couldn't believe it. I was feeling great. I even did one mile at 7:38, which is blazing for me. The whole time I was running I kept thinking to myself, "I can't believe it. The training actually worked. All of the tempo runs and repeats have made me fit enough to do this." I felt great the entire 13.1 miles. I finished in 1:45:49, an 8:05 pace. I came in 28th in my age group out of 273, and 272nd overall out of 2024 finishers.

I am psyched! Maybe this whole 3:45 marathon is achievable afterall. By the formula (double my 1/2 time and add ten minutes) I will finish in 3:42. That gives me three minutes pad to qualify for Boston. Will I qualify? Who knows. A lot depends on the weather that day, and of course the rest of my training. I could get injured between now and then. But will I try to qualify? Definitely.

There's a danger with having a time goal that is potentially out of reach. If you run too hard in a marathon, you can fizzle out at mile 20 and be stuck running the last 6.2 miles at a 16 minute pace, which obviously kills your time. This is my biggest worry. If I bite off more than I can chew, I could end up without a Boston qualifying time, and without a four hour marathon. This would be pretty depressing. But, if I don't try, I'll never know.

When I had that really bad 20 miler last week, I thought to myself, "I don't even want to qualify for Boston because that means I have to run another marathon." A week and three days later I'm over it. I'm going to go for it. I might not make it, but at least I can say I tried!

One bad thing happened during the race. I wore my Fuel Belt hydration pack thinking it would help me stay hydrated, and I earned this nasty bruise. I don't even want to think what my hips are going to look like after 26.2, but I really need the water, so I'm going to wear it anyway. We'll see how I feel after Thursdays 20 miler. OUCH!