26.2 with Donna Race Pace Dilemma

good-bye 6 foot snow drifts blocking my garage

The BF and I are off to Florida tomorrow for me to run the half  in the National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer. I am super excited, mostly for reasons that have nothing to do with running. Work has been crazy lately, so I really need a long workout. The BF has a new schedule at work so we never get days off together anymore. And it has been especially cold and snowy here in Maine. I can't wait to be somewhere where I don't need boots and 10 layers to go outside.



Back when I signed up for race, I was secretly hoping I'd break 2 hours. But I realizing that it not going to happen. I honestly just haven't put in the speed work required. That is partly due to weather. Everything has been covered in snow and ice for the past couple months, meaning that a lot of quality workouts turned into just try not to fall and break something runs. It is partly due to conflicting priorities. I love winter activities- alpine skiing, nordic skiing, snowshoeing, etc. So I have replaced quite a few runs with one of those. I also signed up for an April marathon, meaning that my marathon training started earlier than expected. So speed work was replaced with some long runs. And it is partly just laziness. Running is my Zen time. It is hard to be Zen when you feeling like you are dying from running so hard.

So what should my goal be? Should I have a goal?

I pulled up my past half-marathon results on Athlinks (a suiper cool site that collects and organizes all your race results for you).



My A goal if everything goes super amazing is to PR. My PR was set in 2008 when I was training (and racing) with speedy friends. 

My B goal is to beat 2:05. This will beat my 2 most recent times, including my time from last year.

And of course my C goal is just to finish. Sometimes you have a crappy day and finishing is all you can manage.

BUT here is my dilemma. One of things I love about this race is that they have pace groups that use the Galloway run-walk method. I want to run with a pace group for most of the race. BUT there are only 2:00 and 2:10 pace groups. I am right smack in the middle.

Last year I ran with the 2:10 group until mile 10 and then took off. This year I am thinking of starting with the 2:00 group and seeing how long I can hang out. But I am a little afraid this might lead to a major blow-out. On the other hand, I am afraid that if I start with the 2:10 group I will be too far behind to meet my goals.

What would you do?