game plan

There are less than 24 hours until I am on the starting line of the NC Marathon in High Point, NC. It's important to have a "game plan" with any race that you do, and it's ok if your game  plan changes during the race. Having a game plan on how you'll tackle different things in the race will give you the mental edge over others, and will help you to push through to the finish.

I think that the marathon is the hardest race to come up with a game plan and stick to it. When training for a marathon, you don't run that distance in training, so you can never be sure of how you expect to finish. The most that people will run in training for a marathon is 20-22 miles like one time, maybe twice.  My longest run while training for this marathon was like 15 miles, so I'm not really sure how I'll do. But what I can do is look at my past experiences with the 2 marathons I've done previously. What I did right, what I could've done better, etc.

My game plan for this marathon is to start out easy, maybe find somebody to chat with along the way to make the time go by better, and then hopefully run some negative splits by running faster the 2nd half. This plan might change though if I get a cramp or hit the wall really hard or if I'm just not feeling it. I know that the course is kind of hilly with some rolling hills, but I'm ready to tackle those. I actually have a mantra for hills, and it's pretty simple, "Get up that hill." haha. It really does help...

Some people have been asking me what time I'm looking to get. I have a time in mind, but you know...whatever. My main goal for this marathon is to just have fun. It's going to be a beautiful day, and my mom and Josh will be coming out to see me run. I'll be looking forward to eating some Lexington BBQ afterwards. mmmm

Get ready for some post-marathon blog posts with pictures (hopefully)!