17 Minutes: One Step Closer

I had a good day at the races yesterday; my Facebook friends regarded it as a perfect day for racing: humid but cool. I don’t mean gambling; rather, it was at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon where I earned a personal best time of 3 hours 36 minutes. It took me a total of five years to achieve this return on my investment. My previous best timing was 3:50, which was a plateau for me for the past two years, until I added new drills and performance triggers.

On checking my time, I will need to improve it further by 17 minutes to qualify for the Boston Marathon. The latter is a 114-year-old long distance run event that involves a capped participation of 25,000 marathoners of distinction per year. You qualify through any official marathon in the world. For my age group of 40-44, the qualifying time is 3:20. The women’s qualifying time is another 30 minutes.

Previously, the thought of doing the Boston Marathon was not a possibility. It was not on my list to do; however, this possibility has now surfaced. After yesterday’s personal achievement of 3:36, I am now reconfiguring my mindset and options. My coach, Craig Holland has always believed I can do a sub-3:30 hour marathon in an Ironman – so this achievement has shifted my personal belief and mindset. Having spoken to a runner, Frank M. from Prague, Czech Republic I learnt from him that even Europeans believe that to qualify for this century-old American race it would be sensible to do it in a cold climate race.

I think that to qualify for Boston is a massive achievement. I will review my training program and racing strategy should I seriously want to achieve this distinction. These 17 minutes that I intend to shave will be the most important time of my racing career. Completing a challenging race does raise your bar of self-imposed limitation, both on a physical and mental level.

Leadership Lessons: How much investment in my training will it take to reduce my time differential by 17 minutes? Which conditions would it take me to best ensure this timing? How would I sustain my motivation to achieve this next challenge? Who will I consult to ensure my success in my quest?