I like to post a story before a big race. Predict my time. Push myself by making literal commitments. I can do that now.

I’m running the Colorado Marathon next Sunday. Initially, I thought I’d try to improve upon my recent finishing times, but I’m not feeling it this time around. I definitely want to run around a 9 minute pace for a 4 hour finish time, but I don’t think I even care about finishing under 4 hours. Give or take 10 minutes and I’ll be happy.

I’d qualify for Boston if I ran 10 minutes under 4 hours. And really, to be selected, I’d have to run another 10 minutes or so faster than the qualifying time. I saw myself doing that at the start of the year. Knowing my conditioning now, I don’t see that happening. The downhill lean of this course will help but I haven’t been putting in the miles to run faster than a 9 minute pace.

Training for the Bandera ultra really took its toll on me. I haven’t been training hard since. And I doubt I’ll try to run another ultra this year because of the commitment that is required. I have other things I need to focus on. But May is a big month because I have this marathon next weekend and then the Bolder Boulder at the end of the month. First time to run that since 2017. I don’t like to run it unless I’m reasonably fast and can compete for the top 10 in my age. Not sure I’ll be that competitive this year but it’ll be interesting to run such a short distance and to see what kind of speed I still have, if any.

Margot was supporting both her parents in the photo above at the Royal Gorge Ultra in Canyon City this weekend. I got in my last big training runs before the marathon. I don’t expect to race fast but I’m hoping for a good run.