Expectations: Guess What I Will Run at Boston (and WIN)

I started out training for Boston around Thanksgiving — officially 20 weeks with Coach Mario — with the goal of 3:07-08. Since I ran the Oakland Marathon in 3:26 on sort of a ‘see what happens’ plan and then followed more or less the same plan, but with like faster paces and harder work, to run the Chicago Marathon in 3:17, I figured training for REAL would make 3:08ish a very solid goal.

Training was good. I killed it a lot, like all of January and February. I ran a 1:27:52 at the Kaiser Half Marathon. I started to think maybe more like a 3:04/05 would be possible.

Then, four weeks ago, I hurt my foot. I had four or five days of doing nothing really (during which I was supposed to get in my only real long runs), then a week of water running and Alter-G, then I got sick, then another few weeks of water running and Alter-Ging and biking and trying to run a couple times. It’s been hit or miss. I’ve gotten some work in, but not as much as planned obviously and almost nothing long, but still more training on the aggregate than my previous marathons.

Tuesday, I got the cortisone shot in my foot. The foot is starting to feel better, but running doesn’t feel so good now. It feels like something lots of people hate to do.

So, how fast am I going to run on Monday at the Boston Marathon? I have no fucking idea.

I’m not sure what kind of expectations to go in with. I’m pretty sure I’m still relatively fit. If my foot doesn’t hurt, I want to think I should be good. But, there’s a pretty decent probability the last six miles will suck. Of course, the last six miles will probably suck whether or not my foot hurts.

Here’s the fun part: Guess what time I will run and win two pairs of injinji socks!

Post your guesses in the comments. Whoever is closest I will send these two pairs (one low and one calf-high) of injinji socks to — the trendy thing right now in socks. [Side note: I was given a few pairs when I was visiting a PR company, unrelated to this blog, just because I am awesome. I’ve worn the ankle-high pair of socks a few times — though obviously I’m not running much right now — and they seem pretty good and comfortable. I mean they’re socks; I have no strong opinion. But, since everyone’s been raving about them lately, I figured I’d giveaway a couple of the unused pairs. Yay, free stuff!]

So, feel free to guess what you think will be most accurate. If you want to guess 3:35:40, I won’t feel bad. Maybe you’ll be more right than I am, though I hope you’re not, I hope you’re WRONG!