One of my big goals of 2010 is to run a marathon in under 4 hours! It’s a goal I hate to even admit on the blog because I know it’s going to be very very hard for me and I am very very scared :/
But, I came clean with my goals toward the beginning of the year so I might as well share my plan for accomplishing this dream with you.
Yesterday I was going through our huge pile of mail that came in while I was on vacation and was happy to see my latest issue of Runner’s World had arrived. I was flipping though it and stumbled upon a plan to run a four hour marathon!
It must be a sign! So, I decided to just bite the bullet and plan to run my next mary in under four hours following this plan with a few modifications for my life, travels and body.
I am excited. I am scared. I will be writing about my training here 🙂
I have only run 2 marathons so far. My PR is actually my first marathon at 4:15!
But, my most recent mary in January was 4:27 🙁 I blame the time difference on
a.) being sick and b.) not training enough (darn winter in MD)
I know I have a very long and hard road of training ahead of me, but I’m at least going to try and go for it. I really wanted to run Long Beach in October, but think I need to do at least one half mary before I do another full. But, there’s one problem – I cannot find a half marathon in SoCal in Aug. or Sept (except for the AFC in San Diego the weekend I’m out of town, fail).
Please let me know if you are aware of a half marathon within 200 miles of Orange County in late July to Sept. Thanks!
I will make my final decision on my next full marathon around whether or not I find a half marathon before Long Beach which is Oct. 17th.
I didn’t have time for breakfast before Strike! this morning, so I just chugged some iced coffee and called it fuel.
When I got back I made a big smoothie with protein powder, ice, almond milk, spinach, chia seeds and xantham gum.
Plus a sandwich thin with PB on the side. Trader Joes is out of my fave Flax Almond Butter again 🙁 They have been really failing me on this lately. Boo. 
Now I am off to meet my friend Kristin for lunch 🙂 See you later gators…
Thank you for another great article. Where else could anyone get that kind of information in such a perfect way of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I am on the look for such information.
San Francisco Half on 7/25. Do the first half and you can run over the Golden Gate. There’s also a HM in Camarillo in early October. Why not do the Long Beach Half, and then Surf City Full on Super Bowl Sunday? Both Long Beach and Surf City are good (meaning flat) PR courses, but Surf City is *really* monotonous (out and back and then out and back again). Long Beach is the nicer/more scenic course.
Also, check out http://www.raceplace.com for all races in and around Southern California (Santa Barbara south to San Diego).
You can do it, Monica! What a great goal! And congrats on having the courage to share it with all of us. 🙂
Awesome goal. I’m totally rooting for you. Go Monica go!
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Awesome pics! I adore the post so much! 😉
I hear you on the AB! They said that almonds aren’t in season right now but by mid-July, there should be more in stock. Oh man!
Awesome, Monica! So excited to see how it goes. You’ll rock it!!!
I’m excited for you! Looking forward to reading your progress!
I got my Runner’s World today! I saw the article…You can do it!!!!!
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You and I have the same goal. I am planning on running my 4th marathon this fall and my goal is sub 4 as well. The Runner’s World article came out at a perfect time, right. I look forward to following your training….good luck!
Really appreciate you sharing this article.Really looking forward to read more.
Good luck on making your personal goal!! I know there’s an ET Midnight half outside of Vegas in August because I had wanted to run, but I’ll be out of town.
WOW! I can’t imagine running a 5k, let alone a marathon. That is so incredibly impressive. I can’t wait to read about your training. You rock!
Portland (over 200 miles, but FUN because you get free local strawberry shortcake at the end) has the foot traffic flat on July 25th! Can’t wait to read about all of your training!
Cutting 15 minutes off a marathon? You can totally do that girl!! Woohoo!!
I am so excited that you’re doing this plan! I saw this the other day and plan to do it next year after baby has arrived. Can’t wait to follow your progress and hear what you think of the plan. Best of luck in reaching your goal!!! I’ll be rooting for you!
~Christie
If you wish to find all the HardHat via the www that is on this image I ended up being able to come up with it found at Pink Hard Hats.
You go girl! That’s great that you found a training plan to follow. I admire you….I couldn’t run an entire marathon AT ALL. Best of luck to you. 🙂
You can do it!!! I can’t wait to hear all about it 🙂
Don’t stress out too much and enjoy your training period. Sometimes things just fall into place. We all have goals, but it will be a better experience if we enjoy the journey. I am training for Chicago in October and need to cut 20 mins off my time to BQ so I understand the anxiety. I am excited to get started on chipping away at that PR time. Good luck on your training and try to find your happy running zone!
I know you can do it!!
I was going to suggest that San Diego half, but you already said you’re going to be out of town. A friend from my gym (who has run 15 marathons!!) is running in that AFC half marathon in San Diego.
Good luck with all your training. It’ll be hard, no doubt, but so worth it in the end.
WOOHOO!! As luck would have it, thats my goal too, and I was SO PUMPED to get runners world!! My PR is 4:36, but it was a mary where it was so hot that they cancelled the race after 5 hours, AND ran out of water, so i feel pretty pumped i got to finish!!
You can totally do it. I am pissed that I will probably never run a marathon again because my goal was to do it in 3:45. I was over-trained for my first marathon (SD Rock & Roll) and I ran in the second hottest LA Marathon for my 2nd time. Seriously, it was scorching. My time was 4:06 for my first and I think 4:07 for my second.
I’m looking forward to hearing on your training plan …. 4h 🙂 Incredible!
I thought of you when I read that article! You can totally do it!!!
I think the Long Beach Marathon has a half as well. At least I thought it did! Disneyland has their half but it’s pricey. I’ll keep an eye out for you.
My Trader Joe’s is out of the almond butter too. I asked them about it and they said they are in the process of re-shipping it to all of the stores. Dude, where’s my AB?
You are a rockstar and can totally run a 4 hour marathon!
What does the xanthum gum do? I have seen this on other blogs but I don’t know anything about it. Can you taste it in your smoothies?
YAY!!! I am doing the half in Long Beach 🙂 there are a million of us from nor-cal that are doing it! We will have to meet up.
I know that SF is much further up north, but the SF half is at the end of July AND if you run it Long Beach and Surf City you get a big fancy medal and jacket – its called the california dreamin series.
I will let you know if any others pop into mind.
I’m looking for a socal 1/2 in that time too, so I will let you know. I am planning on doing the Long Beach full (my 1st full) so I want another half under my belt first.
I’m thinking about doing the Las Vegas Half Marathon in December. I am terrified and excited about the whole thing!
You can SERIOUSLY do it!!! You should e-mail skinnyrunner she is baller at finding races :)!
I’m doing the AFC half! I’m so nervous though…I’m fairly new to the running thing. And I am SLOW as crap (like sometimes you say you are, but I’m way slower than you). Anyway, the Disneyland 1/2 is Labor Day weekend but I guess it’s full. Is Santa Barbara too far away? There’s the Pier to Peak Half Marathon, also Labor Day. I found all those here: http://www.halfmarathons.net/race_calendar_california.html which is actually a really cool site so I’m glad I had a reason to search.
GOOOOO for it! This is great news. So proud of you!