Well it’s the first race of the year, so I think it’s only appropriate to do exactly what I’ve been doing for the last three years: set sandbagging goals and act surprised when I crush them.  You know what?  No.  Let’s start things off right in 2012.  I ran 3M last year and in my preview I humbly hoped to set a new PR of 1:35.  Instead I finished just a shade under 1:30 and had to come up with some explanation to all my readers.  Not this time.

I’m setting a very aggressive goal for this race.  One that I have no real reason to think I can hit.  But that’s how it should be, right?  My goal is 1:27:30.  That gives me a solid 8 second buffer to beat Colin’s PR from a few months ago.  What that also gives me is a blistering 6:40 minute per mile pace to follow.  If the weather forecast holds, we’ll be in good shape*: high 62, low 44.

I have a small army of amazing friends and family who are going to be out there cheering me on along the course.  Don’t worry, I’ve warned them that I won’t be looking too good.  I’ll let them know to just pretend I’m a rockstar and let me go on my way.

*and by “good shape” I mean 1 less excuse to lean on.