About a month ago I sat down and figured out what my 2011 race schedule was going to look like, at least the "A" priority race. At that point I had chosen in River to River Relay (April) and Ironman Arizona (November). Of course there were a couple of other races that were penciled in. I was looking at applying for a lottery slot to the Ironman World Championship (October) in Kona, HI. If I was fortunate enough to get selected I would need to complete a Half Ironman or longer by August so I also penciled in Rohto Ironman 70.3 Florida (May). These choices made sense back then.
When I plugged my half-marathon time from May (1:40:04) into the VDOT calculator it predicted a 3:28 marathon and McMillian predicted a 3:31. Both of which are around 20 minutes away from Boston Qualifying pace - 3:10. Of course last weekend a friend of mine at work suggested I run a 5K that is held in his subdivision so I could set a 5K PR that wasn't part of a triathlon. I completely exceed my expectations for the 5K and ran a 19:55, which is much faster than the predicted time from my half marathon. After punching this new data into the calculators VDOT now predicts a 3:10 and McMillian predicts a 3:14, both indicate the possibility that I could Boston Qualify. There is no need to remind me that a half marathon is a better predictor than a 5K, but my half-marathon was run in May and the 5K, 6 days ago.
This leads to the conundrum: Do I continue on my path to return to Ironman as a triathlete or do I change my focus and become a runner to qualify for Boston? I do see the irony in asking this question since my last post was asking the question if anyone can qualify for Boston if they make it one of their goals. I don't expect to qualify in my next marathon, (possibly Disney in January if I become a runner) but I can start heading down the path to qualify.
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