Goal of Sub-3 Hour Marathon (Read 15845 times)

“…I am just a decent 50+ year old marathoner who is having fun running a half dozen or more marathons a year…” “…3:02 - 3:05 that I can do but I can't seem to get under 3:02.” I checked the last running of Boston, Berlin, London, New York, and Chicago 2006 (the last year it wasn’t hot there). These are the majors, the largest most prestigious marathons in the world outside of the Olympics. For women aged 50-54 a time of 3:05 would have won 2 of these (NY, Chicago 2006) and placed 2nd in 2 others (Boston, London). A 3:04 would have been 2nd at Berlin. That’s a top 2 finish in all 5 of the majors--a tad better than “…decent 50+ year old marathoner…” EDTA: spinach, It dawned on me that you might not be the female "spinach" who used to post on the old CR forums. That was what I was assuming. She was a thin lady who was pretty fast. So excuse me if you are a guy, but those are still some nice times at 50+.

I ran with him @ Paavo for a bit, Male all they way ... unless there have been neew developments since then

 Do I get part credit for realizing that I might have .....d up?

 

 

Hey, I see there have been some new developments around here since I last stopped by. The best site around just got even better. Way cool, eric.

Yeah, I am a guy.  I was over at coolrunning a couple years ago with the name spinach over there also, so I am not sure who you were thinking of.  I am also spinach on Marathon Maniacs.  Thanks, for the comments and suggestions, maybe one of these days I will get lucky with good conditions and have a good day and become one of the few guys to first break three hours at an age over 50 and having run more than 25 previous marathons.  I am pretty sure however that that won't happen this sunday in Rochester.

 

I am viewing this race as a supported long run.  I ran it last year and my family really liked the location and they wanted to go back there again and with the cheap entry fee (I think it was $20 or $25 before January 1) I decided to run it again this year. 

 Maybe you posted a picture of a thin lady and I though it was you . Hell, who knows? Probably another one of those dad blamed short circuits zapping me again. Just wait until you get old.

 

 Anyway, with the right training mix and enough of it I'm quite sure you've got a sub-3 in you.

Alans through the half in 1:28:56. I wonder if he's running with another runner from the RWOL sub-3 thread. They practically have the same splits. Only needs a 1:31:03 to go sub-3...

Bring it home Alan - I tried to go to website for an update, but it must be overloaded, I can not get in!

good race. Congratulations on the PR!

There's always the redemption race and you're totally within the "kill zone" with a time like that.

A nice cool, perhaps slightly drizzly fall marathon and you'll make it!

 

Looking forward to the race report.

Congratz again on the PR.

Looks like Spinach was going for it.

1:28:59 at the half.

3:05:42 final.

Heck of a good marathon so soon after Lake Wobegon.

Congratulations, Spinach!

John

 Thank you.  It was a nice race.  The strange thing is however, that I went in having no intention of running that fast.  My plan was to just settle into a comfortable pace and go with it, I was really expecting a time something like my time here last year 3:13.

 

As I said that was my plan.  So much for plans, the problem was I never found a comfortable pace.  During the first half my pace was jumping all over the place trying to find something that I could just settle into.  According my garmin the fourth mile was 7:25 that didn't feel good, I tried speeding up, no good,  and I was all over the place in between.  I just never got into a groove.  So I decided if was going to be uncomfortable at any pace, I might as well go faster so I would be done sooner. 

 

I saw my wife at about the 13 mile mark, gave her my gloves and told her I was probably going drop after 15 or 18 miles. Well I didn't and I just kept plodding along.  The weather was nice at the start but there were no clouds in the sky and it did get pretty warm near the end, especially the last mile and a half with no shade.  This was especially tough since I hadn't run in warm weather so far this spring. 

 

As I was coming in, I was gaining some on the guy ahead of me but I didn't feel any need to catch and pass him.  However at one point I got a pretty good view of him and I thought he might be 50,  Well I wasn't going to let first in my age group go that easily and so I did manage to pick up the pace somewhat and pass him before the finish.  My garmin had measured the half mile split at 6:30 pace, so that made me feel good that I did have something left in the legs.  It turned out it was all for naught as he wasn't 50 anyway. 

 

Four weeks to Grandmas with no long races in between.  I may do a 10k but that will be it for the racing.  Probably two or three 15+ plus training runs in there.  I am just hoping for a cool, cloudy, not very windy day along Lake Superior on June 20.