Once upon a time, I really only had one goal with my running: to get into some kind of decent physical shape and complete a marathon. I’ve overcome the initial motivational challenges of just getting going, injuries (major and minor), and now feel like I’ve pretty much gotten there. Not really exactly where I want to be physically–is anyone really there?, but close enough that I can probably put a flag in it and call it mission accomplished. My first marathon was in 2010.
Once I got through that, it was on to the next marathon, but like most multi-marathon runners I know, there’s a rhyme or reason to how races are selected: geographies, variety, quality of medals, race ‘speed,’ all perfectly valid criteria.
For me, I started combining racing with travel destinations that my wife and I would both like to visit. After all, if I’m going to spend hours out of the house running, the least I can do is thank my wife by taking her on a nice trip somewhere. That’s how Easter Island and Chicago got on the calendar.
Then, earlier this year, I completed my first sub-4:00 marathon. In fact, it was my first sub-3:30 marathon. This September, a Boston-qualifying time probably comes into the realm of possibility as I fall into the next age group and ‘only’ need to come in under 3:25 (plus a margin under that of 2-3 minutes to be sure).
So there’s a number of goals on my plate:
- Seven Continents: Having completed the Americas, Europe and Africa, only Asia, Australia and Antarctica remain. Definitely looking at Tokyo (Asia), Gold Coast (Australia) and the 2020 Antarctica Marathon. This is the most finite of the goals, which is a plus, but these take the most planning and money–a serious encumberance. [On an aside, there’s a bit of discussion about whether New Zealand counts as it’s own Continent, making the challenge “8 Continents” instead of 7. My position on this is to let Football Confederations be the guide, where they exist (sorry Antarctica!). Until NZ breaks away from Oceana, it’s part of Australia for the purposes of this challenge.]
- Six So-Called ‘Majors:’ Chicago, London, Berlin are done. Only New York (denied by the lottery for the third straight year!), Tokyo and Boston remain. I will run all three of those, so it’s just a matter of when. Again, a pretty finite goal, though getting to Boston requires either qualifying or raising a ton of money for charities that I’m not really passionate about (I’ve reviewed the list). Tokyo is an expensive marathon too due to the travel costs and time commitment.
- Qualify for Boston: I’d really like to find a flat, fast course in the Fall or Spring for this, to see if I can get into the 2019 race. This is a solid goal and is relatively cheap. It probably requires more dedicated focus than I have at the moment (as evidenced by this list). I probably need to put all my attention on the Fall race season, finding a flat, fast course, so that the Spring season becomes by backup plan. So that’s two marathons that I might not otherwise choose (Sacramento? Phoenix?) for the chance of Boston. Going to be a tough sell to the Mrs.
- 50 States: This one is probably out of reach for me. There’s just a lot of States and I’m not the kind of runner who can run marathons on successive weekends–even slowly. 4/year is probably all my body can safely handle if they’re timed right. I’m no mathematician, but with only 4 done, it would take me 12 years to get there if I abandon my other goals. Still, it’s tempting to try and pick races in States I haven’t run yet–particularly if I look at Boston qualifying and am picking two races based purely on speed.
Not sure which direction I’m going in yet, but have to get my first triathlon out of the way first (next month) before I even get moving on any of these. Only driver for bringing this up is that it’s registration season for Fall and Spring (even a bit late for Fall).