I don't mind sharing my race goals with friends and family members who are interested and I would share here if prompted. My goals tend to be pretty conservative, though, since I haven't "raced" much, so I'm usually not worried about falling short. And, lately, my goals have typically been to have fun and finish uninjured - I don't like having a set time goal if I don't have enough information to base it off of.

This has been my experience up until now. My upcoming 5K is the first time I'm going in with an actual, serious, I-trained-for-this-shit-and-it's-gonna-hurt goal, vs. have fun, finish, and maybe go a little bit faster if I feel good.

I now have some semi-crazy goals long-term (sub-20 5K at some point in my life, BQ before I'm out of the 18-34 group), I like sharing them because I don't think I have an unrealistic timeframe, barring injury or other unforeseen circumstances (like if I run a marathon and decide that I hate it :P ), and because I'm always interested in reading how other people got to those milestones. I think I'll probably continue to be a bit conservative in my short-term goals, just how I am, but no problem sharing those either.

My upcoming 5K is the first time I'm going in with an actual, serious, I-trained-for-this-shit-and-it's-gonna-hurt goal, vs. have fun, finish, and maybe go a little bit faster if I feel good.

 

The sub-20 5k is a much tougher goal than a female open BQ.  I think my 5k was 22:48 when I ran my first BQ.  Even a sub 3:20 marathon sounds much much easier to me.

Ha yeah, that's why I didn't put a timeframe on that one I'm shooting for mid-23s or better this weekend after running 24:47 on a rocky trail course a few weeks ago, my old PR was 26:00 with a base of ~8-10mpw. Taking off the next 3+ minutes will be a much longer struggle!

I know a few 40+ women in my club who run sub-20 and 5:19-20ish in the mile - they're my inspiration for chasing that goal as someone who came to running well after high school/college years.

The sub-20 5k is a much tougher goal than a female open BQ.  I think my 5k was 22:48 when I ran my first BQ.  Even a sub 3:20 marathon sounds much much easier to me.

Agreed. Heck, even when I was running 19:30 for 5k I still BQ'd three straight years in the 35-39 A/G [3:15 qualifier]. And in my 50's I BQ'd two straight years [with a 6 minute cushion] with a grand master PB of 20:39. To qualify [now] in the men's open division [3:05] you'd need to go sub 19:00 for 5k.

Speak for yourself. Sub-19:00 was a whole lot easier for me than sub-3:05.

You were always faster than me. Those early marathons felt so easy to me [we can jog?!]. Horses for courses.

I don't mind sharing my goals. But sometimes I keep a "secret" goal that I have in the back of my mind if the stars align and the racing gods are in my favor. I won't make as big of a deal about some of my goals though as I used to. Sometimes that leads to pretty big disappointments. I may mention it to running friends or my family/boyfriend/friends who may be coming to watch and keep it in mind during the race but I no longer put all my emphasis on one particular goal. The way I felt in May after I again failed to get under 60 minutes in a 10K was a truly devestating feeling because I'd placed SO much emphasis on that goal. I never want that awful feeling again after a race. I do this for FUN after all. 

This is why I go into any goal race with an "A" goal, a "B" goal, and a "C" goal.

The "A" goal is extremely challenging and requires everything to go nearly perfectly.  My training had to go well.  I have to feel good on race day.  The temperatures need to be right.  There can't be much wind.  And, I have to run lights out.  In 6 1/2 years of running and racing, I have only hit my "A" goal twice.  It's just not that often when the everything goes that well.  Something is typically off just a bit and that "just a bit" is enough to knock me from my "A" goal.  In my most recent marathon, I had several workouts suggesting that something approaching 2:58 was within reach.  But, I missed a week with a sore back and there was an awful headwind from Miles 14-19.  "A" goal gone.

My "B" goal is something that is still very challenging but it's also something I should be able to do.  The only reason for me not to hit my "B" goal is for seriously bad weather or if my training has gone way off track or if, for whatever reason, I just have an off day.  Just as I have only hit my "A" goal a couple of times, I have only missed my "B" goal a couple of times.  For me in that marathon, my "B" goal was 2:59:59.

The "C" goal is a goal that will keep me pushing even if the wheels come off or if I'm having a terrible day.  It's a reason to keep racing rather than just jogging it in.  My "C" goal in the marathon was a 6:59 pace.  At 22 miles, I was utterly convinced that I had no shot at a sub 3:00.  The only thing that kept me hanging in there was the thought that I could still finish a marathon in a sub 7:00 pace and that would be nothing to sneeze at for a 51 year old guy.  I did have to settle for my "C" goal in a half marathon once.  My training had gone well and the weather was good.  I even felt good during my warm up.  Then, I was off pace by a good 10 seconds in the first mile.  The 2nd mile was no better and by Mile 3, I knew I was going to have a bad day.  Honestly, I can't recall running harder than I ran that day yet I was nearly 4 minutes slower than what I had hoped to run.  The only reason I kept trying rather than just jogging was that I didn't want to finish slower than 1:30.  I didn't.  I made it with about 30 seconds to spare.

To this day, I have no explanation for why I performed so poorly in that half marathon other than just "shit happens."  We all have bad days that seem to come out of nowhere and it was my bad luck to have it happen on race day.  With a "C" goal though, you can say to yourself that, even if you have a bad day, well at least you by god didn't just jog it in.  You kept racing as hard as you could.

lol