Running from Zombies

I don’t mind running for the sake of running, otherwise I wouldn’t do it, but what makes running interesting for me is having a goal and working towards it. Starting many years ago with ‘I want to try running’ then again in 2007 with ‘I want to be a runner’, in 2008 we had ‘I want to finish a 5k race’ and so on.

My long term goal at the moment is to complete a marathon in 2011. I can’t give an accurate goal time at the moment but I’d rather it were closer to 4 hours than 5. Given the chances of getting a ballot place for London, I’ll probably apply for Brighton instead and then maybe try London another year.

Middle term (is that even a phrase?) goal is a half marathon in under 2 hours. I’m pretty sure I’m going to apply for the Great North Run next year so I have a whole 12 months to prepare! I don’t have a back up race at the moment, so if I don’t get into the GNR I’ll have to have a look around (or try to get a charity place). At the moment I can run about 12 or 13k without my legs getting too tired, and I’ve never run more than 16k, so I’ll need to work on my long runs to extend this.

Short term I have a few, more modest, goals. In May of next year I have the Bupa London 10,000 and intend to shave a couple of minutes off my 10k time. I also, rather embarrassingly, struggle to run too far without taking a walking break. Some of the time it’s because of my asthma, but some of the time I do it out of habit. I can do a 5k without walking fairly easily and so my immediate goal is to start doing 6 and 7km runs without walking, so that by May I’ll be doing 10k without walking.

So there we have it – this is what I’m aiming for!