1,397.4 miles to get to this point. Tomorrow I am racing a marathon for the first time. Everything so far has been designed to lead up to this race. The training gradually built up to reach full strength this month. The workouts were specific to this course’s terrain. The research into logistics, the headlamp for the tunnel, the TP for the ten mile stretch with no other option. Finally the intensity slowly backed off to enter this race fully rested. Everything has been for tomorrow. This is the culmination of nine months work. Yet tomorrow doesn’t really matter. If I hit my time, nothing about my life will change. I will still have diapers to change that evening and an office to get to Monday morning. If I don’t hit it – even if I were to trip and sprain my ankle at the start, it wouldn’t change any of those

Earlier this year I picked running a marathon in under 2:37 as my challenge for 2016. Because this challenge is very specific, I wanted to spend some time discussing my thought process behind it. I think it will help add context to this particularly goal and how I approach goal setting in general. Deciding On A Level of Difficulty The first thing I do when setting a goal is decide on how difficult I want it to be to achieve. I am an extremely competitive and motivated person so I like to pick challenges that will stretch me. I like to be scared that I won’t be able to achieve it so that I have to be resourceful in order to succeed. I like the process. Standing at the peak isn’t the end that justifies the means for me, it is the means for me justifying the end that is the