With my second marathon less than a week away, I’ve been thinking a lot about goals. Specifically, I’ve been re-thinking my goal for this race. Until about 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was confident that I would easily make my goal of a sub 5:00:00 marathon, but then I started having knee trouble. It seemed very much like my problem when I first got back into running, only not as severe (thank goodness). The trouble was that while I was able to run for a while on my sore knee, I was not sure that I would be able to compete a whole marathon, let alone do it 30 minutes faster than my other one.
Luckily, my run today inspired a new confidence, since it was the first run completely pain-free since I hurt myself (mental note: don’t start doing speed work at the end of marathon training). And even more interesting to me was the fact that before I went for this run, I just knew that my knee trouble was over. Nothing really happened to give me this idea, it was just there. And I set out this evening, trusting this feeling, and it didn’t let me down. So what does this have to do with the title of this post?
I confess that before every race, I have two goals: one is my “public” goal, the goal I’m pretty sure I’ll achieve, and the one I tell people about; the other is my “secret” goal, the goal I’m not sure I’ll meet, that is often not even realistic, the one nobody knows about.
For example, at my last race, an 8 k, I was pretty certain I would be able to pull off a sub 50:00 race, and I told all my running friends that that was my goal. What I didn’t tell anyone was that I was hoping to pull a miracle out of my ass and do a sub 45:00, even though I had never run that fast.
At first glance, it may seem to be setting myself up for failure to have a goal that doesn’t seem realistic; however, it gives me the chance to hope for the impossible and I think it pushes me more. I managed to get less than 48:00 at that race, and I’m not sure I would have pushed as hard if I didn’t have my secret goal hanging over my head.
Which brings me to this race, my second marathon, and my first one with a time goal. As I already mentioned, my “public” goal for this race is to finish in less than 5 hours. In order to do this, I need to run at an average pace of 7:00/km. This is about the average pace I have held for my two longest training runs, both about 30k long. As long as my knee holds up, I’m pretty sure I will achieve this goal.
My “secret” goal (and I realize that by putting it up on the Internet, it is no longer secret) is to finish in less than 4:45:00. In order to do this, I need to run at an average pace of 6:45. This is obviously faster than the pace I’ve held for my longer training runs, but it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility.
Obviously, you can never tell what’ll happen during a race, and even the most realistic goal can become out of reach, due to weather, injury, poor hydration, or even “clockblocking” (Google it ). That’s why I also have a “backup” goal of just beating my other time. Here’s hoping I don’t have to resort to it.
Do you have a “secret” goal that’s different from your “public” one? Why do you think you have it?
About Skye
Great post! Yup, in the past I have had ‘secret’ goals… probably out of self-doubt, or thinking it was cocky of me to have huge goals (like running a marathon!) But most of the time lately, the opposite has been true: I figure the more people I tell, the less likely I’ll fail
I refuse to believe I can fail at something I’ve said out loud… even if it doesn’t get done on the first attempt. So: I want to run an ultramarathon 
That’s awesome, Tracy! Have you looked at any in particular?