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Be a Unicorn
Apr. 11th, 2021 11:22 amAs you might have heard (or not!) the Boston Marathon is going virtual this year. Cue up a lot of howling and bitching from a certain segment of the running population. For some of us, though, it's a unique opportunity to get a unicorn medal - maybe the only chance some of us will ever have. While it's a goal of mine to one day run a Boston Qualifying time, I still signed up for a virtual BAA account and started getting emails.
Their virtual series has already had a 5k and 10k, and the next one up is a half marathon. I'm probably going to do this for a number of reasons.
Competition for full marathon spots is going to be intense. Not only do first-timers want in, but there are "streakers" who don't want to miss a year. I hate trying to get into a virtual queue and wait, and would rather not deal with it. And, I have a specific time goal in mind for the half marathon, having met my 10k goal already. Half marathon is a good distance - I can push myself hard but not feel totally gassed the rest of the day. I can easily train around here, either on the treadmill or the road, and still be supported, even if I just leave a drop bag somewhere.
So I'm going to aim for a half marathon spot. I'll still get a finishers medal from Boston Athletics, which will be immensely gratifying, and I won't stress myself out trying to get into the big race.
Boston is not one of those marathons that I really want to run in person. Tokyo or London would be cool, NYC ehh ... Boston, not really. But as I said, I want the feeling of accomplishment that would come from at least qualifying for it.
Towards the end of this month I'll start looking at training plans and starting to try to calculate paces. I know how fast I'd need to run to meet my goals but I like to have an idea of what I need to be doing on training runs in order to get there. I'll probably just feed all this into something like MacMillan Running's pace calculator and just put together something based on that.
Their virtual series has already had a 5k and 10k, and the next one up is a half marathon. I'm probably going to do this for a number of reasons.
Competition for full marathon spots is going to be intense. Not only do first-timers want in, but there are "streakers" who don't want to miss a year. I hate trying to get into a virtual queue and wait, and would rather not deal with it. And, I have a specific time goal in mind for the half marathon, having met my 10k goal already. Half marathon is a good distance - I can push myself hard but not feel totally gassed the rest of the day. I can easily train around here, either on the treadmill or the road, and still be supported, even if I just leave a drop bag somewhere.
So I'm going to aim for a half marathon spot. I'll still get a finishers medal from Boston Athletics, which will be immensely gratifying, and I won't stress myself out trying to get into the big race.
Boston is not one of those marathons that I really want to run in person. Tokyo or London would be cool, NYC ehh ... Boston, not really. But as I said, I want the feeling of accomplishment that would come from at least qualifying for it.
Towards the end of this month I'll start looking at training plans and starting to try to calculate paces. I know how fast I'd need to run to meet my goals but I like to have an idea of what I need to be doing on training runs in order to get there. I'll probably just feed all this into something like MacMillan Running's pace calculator and just put together something based on that.
