Impossible Goal list (Read 151 times)

Inspired by a beginner who recently posted that wants to do a 200 mile week I thought I would start the topic "Impossible goals" where you can list some of the things you have considered achieving and how likely it will be that you do. Here, in order of increasing difficulty are some thing I have thought to do:

Finish an 50k - 95% chance I will do this: I guess I can run 5 more miles if I don't push speed and do some walk breaks.

The "Bear" a 5 mile race up Grandfather's mountain in NC - 90% chance I can do this: This runs up one of the highest mountains in the Blue Ridge, a 1500 foot climb. Part of the course used in Forest Gump movie! My sister has run this, although she walked on the steepest part at the end. There is also a Grandfather Mountain marathon, considered one of the toughest! Maybe 50% chance of that one.

Boston Qualify - 85% chance I will do: At my age I would need to run a marathon in 4 hours 10 minutes, actually a few minutes faster to be selected since the fastest runners are selected first for the limited field. I am starting to train for a fall marathon and hope I can check this off my list.

Finish 50 mile Ultra - 50%: Almost twice marathon distance! I don't know.

Run the entire Greenway trail here in NY (about 75 miles) - 8%: This runs from Rochester NY on the shores of Lake Ontario all the way across the state to Pennsyvania! Unlikely, too many miles. Plus, the trail is not complete so there would be detours to pick up the next section of trail.

Run the circumference of all the Finger Lakes - 4% : The Finger Lakes are 11, narrow fingerlike lakes here in upstate NY. Lake Conesus is just a few miles away from me and I sometimes run to it in my training. I did map out an 18 mile course around the lake and plan to run it sometime. The smallest is Canadice only 3 miles long. Some of the lakes are much bigger. There is a 50 mile Ultra race around Canandaigua Lake, but there is a smaller 35 mile loop that could be done. The biggest lakes would be a challenge. Cayuga is like 40 miles long so it would be like a 80 to 100 mile run to go around it. Also, not all the lakes have trails so there may be heavy traffic! If done, best to try very early Sunday Morning.

In the past I've had the goal of a BQ and then a sub-3:00 marathon.  At one time I would have estimated those goals at 50% and near 0%, but I've managed to achieve both of them.  It's pretty amazing what we can do when we devote ourselves to it.

My new goals:

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim - I'm doing this May 5th for my 50th birthday.  I'll give it 85% chance to succeed.  If  I don't it will be because I've done something stupid like gone out too fast, let myself get dehydrated, overheated, etc.  If we assume I do it smart (not a given) then I'd bump my chances to 95%.

Sub 24 hours at Western States 100 - 75% - I've already done the hard part which is getting into the race.  I think I'm in shape to do this as well, but have never run a 100 mile race before.  Weather is also a factor here, an unusually hot year could make this much harder to achieve. Same caveats as above regarding making mistakes.

Win a race (any race) - 50% - I've entered some small local races where I've run faster than the winning time in previous years, but not fast enough for the year I ran it.  I think if I'm good at cherry picking some local 5K or 10K I could win one.  Just a matter of finding a race where the fast guys don't show up.

Sub 24 hours at Angeles Crest 100 - 40% - AC100 is a harder course than WS100, and will also be just 6 weeks later.  I'm also in the solo division, so no crew or pacer.  I will have the benefit of experience at WS.

Top 3 50-59 AG at WS 100 - 10% - This seems theoretically possible given past results, but will require me to flawlessly execute the race of my life, and probably for several others to have an off day.  Furthermore if I run WS to protect the sub 24, I'm almost giving up on any shot at a high AG placement.  Maybe I get in another year and go for broke (if I get my sub 24 this year), but WS is so hard to get into that is unlikely as well.

I wanted to run one mile -- maybe three. I wanted to run as effortlessly as the college students I drove by as they ran by the playground downhill from the campus. I wanted to run as easily as walking.

I finally ran a mile several years after I started running, by which I ran "a mile" race. I had completed four half-marathons by then.

Still working on the effortless part.

I wanted to run one mile -- maybe three. I wanted to run as effortlessly as the college students I drove by as they ran by the playground downhill from the campus. I wanted to run as easily as walking....

That's a beautiful image. It could be the first lines of a book.

Certainly something i've felt, and still do.

About the only goal i have is to get one more age graded national level finish time in any distance. That connotates as 80% or better. I've done it once, maybe twice before, but it was about 3 or so years ago.I was racing a lot more then, and i'm sure that helped.  I used to get comp entries through i club i belonged to, but then they stopped giving them to any masters age runners. Since then, i have a hard time forking over the dough for entry fees, so i just run the occassional half marathon and full marathon, mostly, and those aren't my strong distances. This year, though, since i just kicked into a new age bracket i'll probably run all the distances (5k, 10k, HM, FM) just to get onto a top 10 list around here organized by age group.

But to be perfectly honest, that's just vanity, and the idea bores me already.

Really, what i want is to do is to run as effortlessly as the college students.

Thank you.

 

 

Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim - I'm doing this May 5th for my 50th birthday.  I'll give it 85% chance to succeed.  If  I don't it will be because I've done something stupid like gone out too fast, let myself get dehydrated, overheated, etc.  If we assume I do it smart (not a given) then I'd bump my chances to 95%.

 

 

Got to call you out one this one Paul.  You better make that 100% unless you want a helicopter ride out.  Take it slow, you will be fine.

I want to run a 90+% age graded race.

I ran 89% in college.

PR's are surely in my review mirror, but maybe I can still be in the relative best shape of my life...

I'd say my chances are probably less than 50/50...

-Kelly

I would love to run across my state and document it. Maryland is a smaller state, if i took the less traveled,safer,more scenic route i'm looking at about 400m miles.If i did 20m per day i'm thinking at least 3 weeks if all goes well.

I don't think i could get off work for 3 weeks in a row. Then there is the question of logistics, i would want to stay in hotels.

Anyone ever run across their state --i'd love to hear about it.   

Justin Berk did a trek across MD, mixed biking and hiking. How would you cross the bay?

You could do a north-south crossing in a few hours in Washington county.

Actually just looked, at it's narrowest point, MD is 1.8 miles. So you can run across the state in under 20 minutes.