2011 Mercedes Marathon on Feb 13; Here I come

I just booked a hotel reservation for my wife and I in Birmingham for Feb. 12, the site of the 2011 Mercedes Benz Marathon. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you likely remember that this race is my favorite marathon course of all. I'm really stoked about running it again, and also getting to turn the weekend into a Valentine's weekend with my wife makes it even better.

The Mercedes Marathon (www.mercedesmarathon.com) is just such a fantastic course through the downtown Birmingham area. It's not like the other urban city marathons I've run, because you don't really go through the urban blight areas/warehouse districts that so many other inner-city races force you to traverse. Birmingham is simply terrific for a venue, and the hills that are thrown in throughout the course make it even better in my book.

What's my strategy for this marathon? Well, I'm obviously planning on taking advantage of my training and periodization I have left from the Disney Marathon training cycle. Since I"ve been able to reach a new PR this early in the racing season, I'm absolutely going to push Birmingham a fair degree harder than I did Disney. In terms of a time I"m striving for?

3:39:00

Is that a lofty goal? Yes. Is it within my ability? We'll see. I think it is, or at least is close to my ability. I don't have any delusions about the fact that running a sub 3:40:00 will require suffering and toil on my part, but I'm willing to pay that price for the goal. I've honestly got nothing to lose, so why not? My plan is to begin the race with the 3:40 pace group and follow them until around Mile 24. If I'm able to stay with them until that point, I will then attempt to peel off and squeeze everything out of what I have left in me.

Now, there's no way I would ever attempt a target this aggressive, had I not already reached my season goal of breaking 3:45:00. But like I said, why not go for broke? I still have two additional marathons in March and April that I may run, so time is still on my side. We'll just see how this one works. 

Between now and the race, I've got about two weeks of training time. In that time, I'm going to just do some tempo work and long runs (now that I have my trusty new treadmill :)) I'll leave the final week before Valentine's Day for tapering, and I should be able to show up at the Start line in good order.

Of course, I could be completely, dead wrong on all of this..

We'll see.