St. Jude Marathon Goals

This is only my second marathon, and the first one I've had a time goal for.  For #1 all I wanted to do was finish under the 5:30 cutoff.  I finished in 5:27:08.  I expect more from myself this time.  I have a very specific goal in mind, and that's why I've been so nervous this week.  I've been stalking the weather like a mad woman because I know that temperature absolutely makes or breaks me. My ideal running temp is in the 35-45 degree range.  (It was 34 with a wind chill of 24 when I ran my awesome 8 last weekend.)  I have absolutely no hope of that being the case this weekend.  I actually started my weather stalking on Thanksgiving Day, the day that 12/1 showed up in the 10-day forecast.  It showed 58 and mostly cloudy.  I was pretty dang happy with that.  Then by Saturday they had changed it to 62 and partly cloudy.  I was less happy.  Today it's up to 68 and partly cloudy, 51 at start, 65 by 1:00.  That's entering scary territory there.  And not what I was hoping for when I signed up for a December marathon.

Anyway...

Goal A - Less than 4:56:33.
Goal B - Less than 5:00.

Those are the only two goals I will be happy with.  Period.  But still, just in case shit doesn't go as I'm planning...  (This IS a marathon after all... we all know how much of a tricky bitch she can be.)  

C Goal - Less than 5:27:08.

That would give me a PR at least.  Anything more than that and I just may as well DNF as far as I'm concerned.

If anyone cares to check in on me, you can track me here.  I'm #1302.  If (when) things get rough, maybe just knowing that you all are watching will help me keep putting one foot in front of the other!

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