The last few years I’ve loaded down my calendar with race events, so this year I’ve made the decision to do only a couple, but really focus on hitting goal times. Quality over quantity. While I may do a few more little events, or ones without goals in mind, I have four events that I’m going to set actual goals in:
I’m going to start the year off with the Flower City Challenge Half in Mid-April – I PR’ed on this course a few years ago, and in a rare change of pace was actually able to maintain the reverse split pace I wanted to. I think that this is generally one of the best Half Marathons I’ve done and am looking forward to doing it again this year. I’m targeting a 1:40 finish time, which means shaving about 10 second per mile off my current PR – a little bit of a lofty goal, but if there’s any course I can manage it on, I think this is the one.
Next I’m going to move into the Buffalo Marathon at the end of May – I’ve run this twice before, and decided for something different to do the Toronto Spring Marathon last year. As many problems as I had with the way Toronto, in retrospect the course itself it was actually very well laid out, but the event was poorly organized. The lack of restrooms near the start, inability to sit down (or even stand) and eat your post race meal in the expo center where the race finished (something that would’ve been nice with how cold and rainy it was), and distance from the actual finish line to where you could get water/aid if needed was a little ridiculous. I decided to go back to Buffalo as my full this year though. My goal time with this is 3:59 – I just want to crack the 4 Hour barrier. Each Marathon I’ve shaved between 5-10 minutes off of, and given my last Marathon time of 4:09, this seems achievable.
4th of July 5k – this is a local, hometown event that I’ve run for the last few years. I actually hate 5k’s as I’m realizing that I’m really not a sprinter, however I have a PR of 21:28 in this distance, and I’d like to crack that below 21 mins, so I’m going to target a time of 20:59 for entertainment value. I’m just hoping I don’t wind up with a wicked case of Poison Ivy again just in time for it.
Lastly, I’d like to do one Triathlon Event again, and while I enjoyed the Finger Lakes Tri this past year, I’m thinking of signing up for the ROC Triathlon in Mid-August to change it up..My intermediate time this past year was 3:17, I’d like to get down below a 3hr time. I need to spend some time on the bike to really work on that – unfortunately, I can count on one hand how many times I actually rode my bike in 2024, so with any hope in 2025 I can balance my workouts more, and get in some more time on the bike!
Roving On 