I’ll be checking in on the 2025 goals next week but this seems like a good opportunity to go a little more in-depth into the Distance Medley.

We’re two-thirds of the way through this particular goal, and we have a 5-month wait now until we complete it.

The 5K was in April, and this past weekend I ran the 10K.

And I am on kind of a runner’s high after the 10K.

That 10K was such a good run for me.

That’s what got me thinking about this post.

First of all, I wish I had more 10Ks I could run. That’s a nice distance.

But the cool thing about these first two Distance Medley legs is that they are both distances that are kind of in my wheelhouse.

I love training for and running marathons. But the distance is a stretch for me. I know that, but I like that because it gives me something to work towards.

A half marathon is not something I’ve solely focused on really. I had the two last year that I kind of trained for specifically, but I also had in the back of my mind that I was running a fall marathon and I didn’t want to ruin my marathon training by overdoing it with the half marathons. (Actually, now that I think about it I ran another half last year but that was during marathon training so that’s a different category.)

I do think if I was only running a half marathon I could set a goal and train to achieve it.

But with a 5K and a 10K it allows me to see how my training can directly impact my running.

I spent the weeks before the Boston 5K doing a 5K training program and felt strong during the run. That training stayed with me for the other 5Ks I ran this spring.

And with the 10K, I’ve been making sure I was built up to handle 6 miles - that part was no problem.

The ability to run hard for those 6 miles, though, is in part due to the track workouts I’ve been doing. I had been working at recovering from hard runs and I felt myself recovering during the 10K, at least with my breathwork.

When I train for the marathon it’s to get to marathon distance. The pace goals are kind of aspirational but it’s OK if I don’t hit them. (But, obviously because I’ve said this many times, I do think beating 5 hours is attainable.)

But it’s fun to train for (and hit) a time goal in these shorter distances.

I really had no idea what time I might want to hit for the 5K - I just wanted to show improvement.

But for the 10K I knew I wanted to beat an hour.

And I wanted to beat an hour because I knew I could beat an hour.

And now I know that in ideal running conditions with the right training I can probably beat 58 minutes in a 10K.

So that’s where I stand with the Medley. I’m really glad I did this - it was nice to have these shorter races here in the spring - April and June - leading me in to marathon training. (Also, there are standings, pictured at the right…but the leader on the leaderboard’s total time is less than what I did in the 10K alone so that’s not a good thing for me to look at. I guess if I ever did this again it would be fun to compare my totals.)

I am hoping that for the half marathon in November I’ll still have the marathon mileage in me.

I won’t be aiming for any half marathon PRs (that would be sub-2:10), but I think it’s fair to expect a PR in the BAA Half.

I have run the BAA Half once before, and it was hard. I was not in the best half marathon shape of my life for that one.

In the meantime, I’ll bask in the glow of the 10K and look forward to the process of getting ready for the Chicago Marathon.