Looking back and 2019 goals

The year 2018 is almost over and thus it is time to reflect, but it is also the time to make new goals for the new year.

I never really set time related goals for myself, because with my condition I’m not really sure what’s within the realm of possibility.  I don’t want to set an unrealistic goal and then getting frustrated over a goal I cannot reach.

My goals for 2018 were:

• Run a 1000 miles
• And run two more marathons

That was it really. Preferably, one of those two marathons had to be a World Marathon Major, since the long term goal is still to become a six star finisher.

As per usual I didn’t get into the London Marathon through the ballot, thus my spring marathon became the Paris Marathon. I also didn’t get into the New York City Marathon through the ballot, which would mean no Marathon Major in 2018. After being pretty unlucky in life in general, I decided to then give luck a bit of a helping hand and signed up for the New York Marathon through a tour operator. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be running for and I decided I wanted to cross the NYC Marathon off my wish list.

And I did manage to run over a 1000 miles this year. But even though I didn’t set any time goals for 2018, that doesn’t mean I don’t try to beat my own times while racing. I managed an 8k, 10k, 15k, 10 mile, half marathon and marathon PB in 2018. Some of them to my own surprise. For some of them I knew I could run a PB, but didn’t expect I would be able to take minutes of my time. For the marathon I didn’t even realise I had the chance to run a PB until the last 2k of the race. I tried to go as fast as I could that last bit of the race and managed a PB in New York, which isn’t an easy course. So both goals and more were accomplished in 2018. What’s next for 2019?

• Run a 1000 miles
• Run another World Marathon Major
• Run a sub 6 marathon

The first two probably aren’t the hardest part, since I got into the Chicago Marathon through the drawing. But running a marathon in under 6 hours, that’s going to be the challenge. I’m going to give it a try at the Edinburgh Marathon in May. It just means I have to take about 5 minutes off my marathon time. Only problem is that there aren’t any training plans for people like me. Everything I can find is either too easy or too unrealistic. But who knows what 2019 will bring, we’ll just have to wait and see.