Setting goals

With the WHW race nearly upon me, I suppose it's time to look back on my training, read my tea leaves and kill a chicken to study its entrails, all in order to work out a realistic time goal for the race.


Now I'll be the first to admit that the last two are slightly flippant but I think in a race of 95 miles, you have to accept that there are so many potential pitfalls that can befall one during the race, that guddling through entrails might give you just and accurate a forecast as any number of race time predictor sites.

I must admit to feeling a bit guilty at giving Thomas a bit of a hard time over his first goal. I feel a bit like the tortoise offering advice to the hare and that I've trampled over his dream. I know I'll be nowhere near Thomas in terms of speed but I *do* have two runnings of the WHW under my belt which is a lot less than many participants in this race but two more than Thomas. ;-) I'll be absolutely delighted for him if he proves me wrong but I think that it's easy to underestimate how much one can slow down in the latter stages of the race if you have injury or nutritional problems along the way. Even without any specific problems other than fatigue, I think that many runners find that Tyndrum is about halfway in terms of time if not in distance.

As to my own goals (it's only fair to give Thomas a chance to have a go at them) ;-), they are considerably more modest.

Bronze goal has to be just finishing. 95 miles is a long way in anybody's book and although I'll be disappointed if I don't improve on my 2005 time (27:19:25), I'll be happy to finish in the time limits.

Silver is sub 24 hrs. I think I've got it in me and there's something about a round 24hrs as a target. It's entirely arbirtary (like my 20 minute 5K goal) but it's a period that we can all identify with. If I can get to Tyndrum in 11:30 without taking too much out of myself then I think I'm in with a chance but I'm not going to plan on being able to go any faster in the second "half".

Gold will be sub 23. An odd number but it means that I'd finish the WHW on the day. (i.e. Saturday) rather than in a day. This will very much be "icing on the cake". I don't think I'm in with a realistic chance but if I get a good run, good weather and everything goes right, perhaps not impossible.

Platinum would be arriving in Fort William in time for a pint but I don't think that's going to happen, well, not this year at least. ;-)

Next year? Who knows. Time to slaughter another chicken I think. ;-)