So, up until this point in the season, I’d been hedging my bet by saying that I was going to TRY to do the full Nike Women’s Marathon. For some reason, emphasizing the “try” made it easier to grasp, as if leaving the door open for the possibility of not finishing was some kind of security blanket.
But during today’s buddy run with Cassandra and MaryAnn, somewhere around the 3.5-mile mark, something clicked in my head. We were talking about pacing and race day goals and I kept saying, “yeah, I just want to finish.” And they kept pushing me to set time goals and attitude goals (“I’m going to finish and have a great day”).
We talked about last year’s Yassos — an exercise developed by running coach Bart Yasso designed to help you predict your marathon or half-marathon finishing time. You’re supposed to run a series of 800m repeats and take your average time, which will translate to your finishing time. I ran a little faster than 5 minutes per 800m, which translated to about a 2:40 half marathon. I ended up finishing in 2:45 despite not doing any training during the taper period due to crashing my motorcycle and spraining my knee.
I’d been saying that I just wanted to finish the marathon in seven hours, based on a former teammate who was about my age and weight. But when I told them my Yasso time, they both said, “well, that means you should finish the marathon in about five hours.” For some reason, that realization, plus the fact that I have implicit trust in my coaches and the Team in Training program, made me utter the words “I will finish the marathon” for the first time.
It’s a small thing, but I thing it represents a big change of attitude. I WILL finish this thing! Now, it’s just a matter of how long it’ll take.