Sioux Falls Half Marathon Goals

For the second year in a row, I'm not racing the Sioux Falls Half Marathon. I love the race, and I love the race weekend, but I've focused on other fall goal races and will probably plan to use this as a training run for years to come to keep my streak (13 years!) alive.

When I was writing up our training program for TCM I was excited to see that the Sioux Falls half fell on the weekend of an 18 mile long run with 14 miles at goal marathon pace. That seems just about perfect! I edited it slightly to 13 miles at goal marathon pace, as I know there'll be a little break between the 5 mile warm up and the race to gear check my bag and get into the starting corral.

I will say that having to focus on my goal pace and race strategy for the Twin Cities Marathon this early and still this far out from the race put me into a PANIC. Especially because the half is typically warmer, humid conditions, and I wanted to be sure I ran by goal marathon effort instead of killing myself trying to do goal marathon pace on a less than desirable day.

I don't know if I have any actual goal times for this race, since it is a training run, but it'd be nice if the time reflected what I hope to accomplish at TCM, without leaving me feeling like I'd die if I have to do that all over again. I do want to finish feeling strong, picking up the pace the last 5k, and staying steady in the miles leading up to that, particularly on the hillier portions.

I suspect I'll finish in the 1:59-2:04 range, which would equate to my fastest Sioux Falls half since 2011, as a training run. I'd be pretty stoked about that. And I don't even use the word stoked. :P

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Goals

The Sioux Falls Half marathon snuck up on me a little bit this year. I got a late start in training because I still had a few weeks of yoga requirements to finish up once our weekends were done, then I had a solid month of training, and then we got into all of the birthday and pre-wedding fun. I found myself counting down to the big wedding day, and all of a sudden, oops! It's race day.

To say that I'm under prepared is an understatement.

Why I thought I'd have oodles of time to train for a half marathon while finishing up yoga teacher training and trying to plan a wedding in six months, is beyond me.

But the nice news is, it's going to be a gorgeous day, and it'll be my 11th consecutive year running the race. And it's my last race as a single lady.

whoa.

Shit just got real.

So maybe no goal this go around, other than to have fun and not make my sports bra tan any more horrific than it already is. Uff.

Sioux Falls Half Marathon Goals

Immediately following the GoFar Woman Half Marathon, I wanted redemption. And when I saw the extended forecast for the Sioux Falls Half Marathon, I thought that would be my redemption. As the week went on, and my legs took FOR-EV-ER to recover, I realized that to attempt a half redemption race, I would be shorting myself at least 4 days of quality marathon training during my peak training.

Knowing that the Sioux Falls course is a more difficult course, and much harder on my legs than Fargo was, I decided not to race it. *sob* It's smart but it's a bummer. If only Bemidji was just ONE more week away, I could swing both of them!

I still want to get a quality training run out of the day, so the current game plan is to run the first six miles at long run pace, four miles at goal marathon pace, and then race the last 5k if my legs are still feeling good.

By my calculations, this could still have me at one of my fastest half marathons for 2014!

Here's to my tenth consecutive Sioux Falls Half Marathon!