Karen took me out to dinner last night to celebrate me turning 64 before her. I’ve got her by 4 months. The dinner date only gave me enough time to get in a 5 mile run, my shortest run in what seems like forever. Marathon training is all about long runs.

Speaking of aging, it does lend a certain wrinkle to training and racing. I’ve been running under a 9 minutes pace these last two weeks, since I’ve tapered my miles. Ten years ago, I’d be running under an 8 minute pace. I broke 4 hours in some of my faster marathons the last few years, including this Colorado Marathon last year. Absolutely everything has to go right – fueling, hydration, pace. But I’ve yet to break 3:50 and that’s what I need to run to qualify for Boston. If I’m honest, I’ll need to run 5 to 10 minutes faster than that to be accepted to run Boston. It’s a popular race.

This will be my last year to compete with the 60 to 64 year olds. I think that would be true if I make Boston next year too. Once I’m 65, the threshold becomes 4:05 – 15 minutes slower. That actually depresses me. But it sounds about right. Ten years ago I was finishing 30 minutes faster. If I keep running long enough, I’ll be talking about breaking 5 hours.

With one week to go, I feel I can predict my finishing time for next weekend’s Colorado Marathon. I know I can break a 9 minute pace and finish under 4 hours. I’m excited because I know I’m going to push myself to break 3:50, and I honestly believe I can. I’ve got my weight down to 165 and that alone makes it doable. But everything has to go right – fueling, hydration, pace.

I’ll run the first half between an 8 and 9 minute pace. 8 minute miles would be too fast and I’d be challenged to not drop to 10 minute miles for the second half. Running closer to 9 minute miles would be smarter, but the first half drops 1,000 feet of elevation and I feel like I just have to leverage that. The winner of my age group will run an 8 minute pace and I’d like to be in contention for a podium finish. I’ll probably run closer to 8 minutes than 9.

Then the course flattens out and warms up by 40 degrees. If I hydrate well, the heat won’t be too bad. I won’t over dress. Runners tend to over dress because the start is usually close to freezing up in the canyon at 6:30am. I’ll wear a thin, long-sleeve hoodie with thumbhole cuffs so I won’t need to wear gloves. My son-in-law gifted it to me for Christmas. It’s brilliant.

Then my training will kick in and I’ll try hard to maintain my pace to 20 miles. After that, I’ll take one mile at a time. This course has a history of getting hard for me at 23 miles. We’ll see this year. I expect to run 3:50 and am hoping to run as much as 10 minutes faster.