3:10

It's an arbitrary goal, really. Two years ago I wanted to break 3:30, then I reset that to 3:20, now I've dropped it to 3:10. It was just the next 10-minute increment.

For this goal I will have to hold a pace of 4:30/k for 42.195 kilometers (26.2 miles). It equates to 22:30 5k's and 45-minute 10k's. That's a pretty fast 10k, and I will be doing four of them consecutively. This is why I am seeded in the top 1500 (of 33,000) runners at Tokyo. I'm not saying I am fast - no, I am definitely not - but relative to the mass, I suppose all my training has earned me something. And I will try to enjoy that hour of special status I receive as part of the B group.

You can follow along on Sunday morning if you'd like at this website: http://p.tokyo42195.org/
My number is: 23167

The site will come up Sunday morning at 9am, Tokyo time (Sat. 4pm west coast US time) and will show live 5k updates throughout the race. I will be wearing a chip that will register as I cross reader mats at the 5k marks and those readings will automatically upload to the website.

For some idea of what the times will mean, here are my goal splits:

5k: 22.30
10k: 45.00
15k: 1:07.30
20k: 1:30.00
Half: 1:34.57
25k: 1:52.30
30k: 2:15.00
35k: 2:37.30
40k: 3:00.00
41k: 3:04.30
42k: 3:09.00
42.195k: 3:09.54

I will lose at least a minute just getting across the start line and then about another minute waiting for the runners ahead of me to stretch out, so I will likely have a nice deficit at the first 5k mark. Hopefully I will make up that ground and be slightly ahead of pace by 20k or 25k. But don't get too excited if I'm a couple minutes ahead as I will likely fall off pace for the last 5-10k. But if I hit 40k in 3 hours I'll be optimistic.