All systems GO St. Louis

Today is Friday and the GO St. Louis 1/2 marathon is this weekend. My wife was telling me that there are 16,000 people running in it so it will be packed. I had a short 35 minute run (this is a recovery week) and not to be too graphic but I last night I had "gastro intestinal distress" and needless to say the shirt that I left with didn't make it home. "Taking care of business" while out for a run is horrible, however under the cover of night makes it okay I guess. Anyway, sorry for my gross diversion but as a runner / triathlete there are times we have to deal with things and last night was one of those times.

With the 1/2 Marathon this weekend I have no idea what to expect. I will be running the farthest distance that I have ran since SOMA 1/2 Ironman last year. I have had 1 - 1.5 hour run since then and I don't know what to expect. I will be running in my barefoot running shoes (Vibram's) and to be honest I have no idea how my legs / feet will hold up over that kind of distance. In addition, I want to push it this weekend and collect some good data that my coach and I can analyze for my level of fitnesss this time of year in addition to doing some race predictions for my full IM.

However, I try not to enter a race without some goal. Goals assume there are no physical breakdowns that I don't expect but could happen with all of the variables. If I finish and my time reflects fitness my goal would be to finish sub 1:55 (just south of a 9:00min/mile pace. My over reaching goal would be sub 1;50 that would be better than an 8:30 min / mile pace. Since this is purely being viewed as a training run for me I am going to error on the side of pushing vs. not pushing. I will settle in the first three miles and based on how I am feeling I will make a "in game" decision.

As with anything, I may choke, I may kill it. The weather looks great and my hope is no injuries. Other than that, you probably won't hear from me until after the race.

Until then....

Tracy
www.acropolistech.com