One Week Until the LA Marathon

I don't typically get nervous about races.  But I am getting antsy about the LA marathon on March 20, just one week away.

I've been training hard.  I've put in at least eight runs of 15 miles or longer.  I've done them on about a ten minute per mile pace, and I've managed to run the last few miles of those runs on about a 9:00-9:15/mile pace.

I had a personal best half marathon time in January at the Los Angeles 13.1 -- 1:57:00.

Yesterday, my "taper" workout was a three mile warm-up, six miles at "marathon pace", and a one mile cooldown.  I decided that for the sake of this run that 9:15 per mile is my marathon pace, and I managed to do that while keeping my heart rate in a respectable range of 155-165 per minute.

So what kind of time will that get me in a marathon?  My personal best is 4:12 at Long Beach in 2009.  I can beat that.  One online pace calculator says that based on my half marathon that I can hit 4:08.  My coach thinks I can hit 4 hours.  I think 4:05 is a reasonable goal.  I'm not sure.

I care so much about this because I want to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  It's a far away dream, but I think that with the right training that I can do it.  The qualification standards just got tougher, but that just means that I have to get tougher.

This week is a taper week.  A few short runs, and some yoga and stretching.  And hopefully plenty of sleep so that I am well rested and ready on Sunday.