There’s been a lot of buzz recently both in runner’s circles and the mainstream press about Nike’s sponsored “Moon Shot.” Bringing to bear science, technology, and talent, Nike and three runners sought to break the sub-2 hour marathon barrier. Working for over a year on nutrition, shoes, course conditions, pacing, the team announced the big attempt would be made on May 6, 2017, or 63 years to the day that Roger Bannister broke the 4-minute mile barrier.
Star runners Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese, and Lelisa Desisa toed the line at a Formula One track in Monzo, Italy, paced by a geese formation of runners and even a race car going at the necessary blistering running pace of 4:34 minute miles for 26.2 miles. In the end, Eliud Kipchoge proved to be the closest to the goal, but he missed “the moon” by an average of just under one second per mile. He ran the marathon in 2:00:24. Official record keepers won’t certify that as a World Record because of the pacing advantages (whatever….) but it’s an amazing feat. All three guys showed an indomitable spirit and commitment. And while Nike is obviously going for a PR stunt to promote their shoes as fastest around or some such, they threw money and time and energy into it with gusto. It wasn’t sub2 yet… but the test showed that it isn’t a question of IF that barrier will be broken, only when.
It won’t be by me. Nike won’t come an e-mailin’ me to join Version 2.0 of their Breaking2 Project. But that doesn’t mean I can’t set out on my own “moonshot” project. I may come up short; odds are even higher that I WILL come up short but that way sets up failure so I’m trying not to think like that. A moonshot is all about the quest and the relaying of hopes and dreams of that Man of LaMancha-ian impossible dream.
It’s also about trying to spark a renaissance and enthusiasm for something. I could use a spark at the moment to set the weird funk I find myself in aflame.
My own moonshot therefore is a sub-3 hour marathon. The back-up goal, call it an orbiting of the moon shot, is to hit a new PR. Last October, on the famously fast St. George Marathon course, I clocked in at a BQ and PR of 3:05:27.
Earlier this year I had booked a race for the end of July at another famously fast course — the Jack & Jill’s Downhill Marathon. I’d never run there but had long heard about the race. When I was in New York seeing Steve and Ernest Shackleton, they opened up registration for another 200 slots for two marathons that weekend, one on Saturday the 29th of July and one on Sunday the 30th.
And so now, having just barely missed my WAG of 3:12:47 at Pittsburgh, and inspired by the hearts and minds of the sub-2 competitors, I’ve set myself with a new goal. A sub-3 hour marathon for me at Jack and Jill. I’ll have two chances at it then — Saturday and Sunday. If it sounds crazy to attempt such a personally difficult challenge on consecutive days, that this might be setting myself up to failure, well, yeah, it probably is. But at the same time, my very first Boston Qualifying time came on the second day of a double marathon weekend.
This quest also serves as a motivating force to try and shave off some of the gut I’ve developed, the weight I just can’t seem to shed. The bathroom scale fluctuates day to day, and has a margin of error even moment to moment, but I think the rolling average has me 14 pounds over where I’d like to be. Jack and Jill Day 1 is 81 days away. I’m going to redouble, re-triple, possibly even re-quadruple my efforts to lean out, lean in, and get this done. And if I can’t do it in 81 days, with the Sunday marathon on the 30th, maybe I can do it in 82.
Me trying for a sub-3 hour marathon? That might be bad news… but for who? Hopefully not me. After all, given the namesake of the marathons I’m making a run at this time for, I may be setting myself up for disaster and a “broken crown.” (As an aside, I had never heard the “lost” verses of that nursery rhyme.)
Still…
