Happy New Year and a Big New Goal

Happy New Year! With 2011 in the rear-view mirror and 2012 unfurling in front of us, it's time for a new year of running. After taking some time (mostly) off this fall, I'm shifting gears to get ready for the upcoming season. My first order of business was to pick a goal race for the year. This was a hard choice.
I had already decided that this year I wanted to work on running high-quality, fast races. While Ironman training put me in great shape, it limited the number of quality runs and running races I could do. My long runs were always the day after a long bike, so I was tired and slow. I rarely had time to mini-taper for a running race. This year I want to give myself time to enjoy running races again, and my focus in that respect will be the biggest possible: This year I want to run my fastest marathon, ever. 

It seems funny to type that goal given that I'm in pretty couch-potato shape that moment, but with 9+ months until the fall race schedule I know I have the time to get there. My next big decision was where to run this marathon. I would love to run Chicago; fast, flat, world-renown. But that's an expensive trip and with the huge crowds it wouldn't be ideal for a PR (personal record). I'd love to run our beautiful local marathon again, but the course is pretty tough to set a PR. There are some other near-local Fall marathons I considered, but in the end I let my training partners decide. Their decision: Portland.
So on October 7th, 2012, I'll be trying to run my fastest marathon ever at the same race where I ran my current PR in 2007. It's a well-organized, fast course. (It's also stupidly expensive and an ugly course.) But having a goal and the support of our friends is a lot more important than cheap registration or a scenic course, especially for this goal. Stay tuned!