Friday, November 8, 2013

2014

I've been thinking about my goals for 2014. In much the same way as I imagine a woman is able to forget the pain and discomfort of childbirth once the baby is born, the euphoria of having finished a Marathon makes it easy to underestimate the hard work it took to get there. Right now, the temptation to sign up for another New York Marathon is huge, of course. In fact, I had been planning to run the London Marathon in 2014, but now I think I will wait until 2015.

There are two persuasive reasons to take a year off running Marathons (and indeed Triathlons). Firstly, I think my wife deserves a break from my long runs which, more than the hours spent on the road, has affected my family due to my low levels of energy on Sunday afternoons (a euphemism for bad moods). Secondly, now that my Marathon time is at least theoretically in line with my times in shorter races, I'd like to return to 5K, 10K and Half Marathons to see if I can squeeze out a few more seconds while I am still "young" enough to keep on improving my speed.

While there is no doubt that the king of road races is the Marathon, there are a number of equally prestigious shorter races - especially if you are willing to travel - which you can take just as seriously. There are also fast, sea level races as well as ones with a great atmosphere (although I think it will be difficult to beat New York Marathon). As well as marking a few key dates in the calendar for which I will train as specifically as I have for any Marathon, I'll take part in local "B" races for "fun".

The "A" races I am thinking of entering for next year are:

The ABN Amro CPC Half Marathon on March 9th in the Hague
The BUPA London 10000 on May 25th
and La Behobia 20K in November in San Sebastian

There, it's in writing now.

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