Sunday, December 23, 2012

It's About Time

What's on the calendar?  What's in the pipeline?  What's up next? When asked of a runner by a runner, the subject is obvious: the next event.  I ask this often of my running friends and I've been asked this quite a few times since finishing the Ironman. Where does one go from there?  My answer had been the Prospect Park Turkey Trot.  Now that's done, it's the Bermuda Triangle Challenge- a modest one mile race (Friday), 10k race (Saturday), and half marathon (Sunday) combo.

The Team trotted with me around Prospect Park.

I will be completing this with Team in Training as a fundraising participant and will be coaching the even as well.  If you need a cause to donate to before the year is out, please consider dropping a few bucks here.  This will be a fun event and I'm looking forward to it.  Is this the next big thing for me?  Well, I guess not.

To Boston Qualify was my goal back in 2010 when James and I were tearing up the roads of Brooklyn, Manhattan and London.  He got his in Philly that November.  I got 10 miles worth of cramps in NYC which led to my electrolyte geek-out and a search for my mid-sole. Then in July 2011, I kind of got sidetracked when I signed up for what I thought would be my only chance to do an Ironman in my backyard (US Ironman Championship in NJ/NYC) and train with TNT.  I feared this may be the only TNT IronTeam ever. As it turns out, IronTeam is back for 2013, but the NJ/NYC Ironman is not.


A running rendezvous with James in London.  Oct 2010

Since that fateful fall season of 2010, Boston has lowered its qualifying time by 5 minutes, done away with the grace 59 second overage, and I turned 35, putting me in another age group.  That all equates to almost no change for my qualification standards, but a big change in my attitude.

Boston says I need 3:09:59, but for me, it's no longer about the BQ.  I want a sub-three finish time.  This is the next thing on my calendar even though it has no fixed date.  I'll be chronicling my progress in the coming months. If all goes well, my PRs posted to the left will be updated regularly.

Happy Holidays to you all and have a great new year.

2 comments: