An Exercise In Vanity

As if there weren't already 8,000,000,000 blogs out there, I've decided to join the ranks of the narcissistic and create my own blog in the deluded belief that anyone else out there actually gives two craps about what I have to say.  And I don't really have much to say. I primarily intend for this to serve as a running log since I was too cheap to go out and buy that nice neat one from Runner's World this year even though I really do enjoy tracking my mileage throughout the year. 

The goal for 2008: BQ. That's 3:40:59.  

Last marathon: PF Chang Rock & Roll Marathon in January 2008. 3:47:59.  

Exactly 7 minutes to go. And those will NOT be an easy 7 minutes.

I signed up for the Long Beach marathon on October 12. Normally I don't commit this early and hold off on registering until about a month or 6 weeks to  before in case injury, etc prevents me from running it. But those brilliant race organizers at the LB marathon suckered me in to early registration with their enticements of a technical tee (and trust me, I sweat enough to need those instead of regular cotton) AND a personalized bib. Oh, and $10 cheaper registration (those $10 will go towards the ridiculous parking fee at the mandatory expo I have to pick my race packet up at the day before the race).  Sadly, I was not witty enough to think up anything clever for my bib other than "BETH." 

I'm making incremental progress in my goal of knocking off those 7 minutes. 

I ran the Laguna Hills half on Monday (Memorial Day) in 1:43:33. My goal was 1:45 and the course was pretty tough (first six miles or so of knee-blasting downhill and then 7 miles or so of painful, painful incline), so I was thrilled with my time. The handy-dandy pace calculator at marathonguide.com (you know you're a running geek when that's one of your favorite websites) predicted a marathon finish of around 3:37 based on those results. Sheer glee to see that!

I also ran my first 10k since my miserable showing in the Turkey Trot last November. At the Reaching for the Cure 10k on May 4, I ran a PR of 48:10. I wanted to crack 47 but I was still happy with my time. 

So I'm remaining optimistic about my prospects of BQ'ing in the LBC. 

Today's run: 10.2 miles, Back Bay trail. Around 1:28.