On the Record

I think goals are very important. And while I don't have time to get into success, failure, and accountability, let me say this: I have a desire to put myself out on the line and shoot for a lofty goal. I want to be the guy in the game, working hard, performing my best, and seeing if I have what it takes. Like I said, I can't get into this right now b/c it's 10 hours before I'm running my marathon and I need to rest.

I think it would be easy to say I want to run faster than my last marathon. That would be under 3:59, and I would honestly be proud of that. I haven't trained "fast" but I have trained more. So barring major set-backs 3:59 should be a lock. But if I'm honest with myself (and now my readers) I would say that wouldn't be enough. I've trained for back-to-back marathons now and I think that will be a significant increase in training and thus performance.

Here's how I'm looking at tomorrow:

• 3:55 should be a lock
• 3:50 is my goal
• 3:45 is "things went perfect"

So honesty if I don't finish before 3:50 I will be disappointed. If it happens did I fail? Yes, I guess I did -- but that would be ok. Because so often in life big things happen from failure. We come back stronger and never make that mistake again.

Too much for tonight. I'm really excited about running tomorrow. My strategy is 8:15 miles for the first half, and then 9:15 miles to the finish. You can see my updates on my Twitter Feed.