She Runs by the Seashore

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I only met one of my running goals in 2018, but that won’t stop me from starting out 2019 by setting five running-related goals. I tried to set a variety of goals — for example, they aren’t all time-based.

I am also linking up with Zenaida Arroyo and Kookyrunner (Kim), two fellow BibRave Pros, for their first Tuesday Topics linkup. The topic for today is “What are you looking forward to this year?” — and of course, I am looking forward to hopefully meeting these goals!

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Running Goals

1. Run a marathon in under 4:45

I’ve actually already put this goal out there — in my post about choosing the Salisbury Marathon as my spring marathon. I’ve also written about the fact that I have now run nine marathons and my first one was my fastest — 4:17:45.

Running a marathon in under 4:45 would not be a PR, of course, unless I came in under 4:17:45, which is pretty unlikely at this time. However, it would be a big step in the right direction for me, and I think this number is something that would be attainable in 2019. If I were to come in under that time, it would be my third fastest marathon (unless I somehow surpassed my second-fastest time, 4:31).

The fact that the Salisbury Marathon has a flat course will really help me, since I live in Salisbury and I’m very used to flat conditions. I was also happy to see that the 4:40 pacer is Karen Cathell, who has been on several of the same pace teams as me (she has paced different times). So, I’m hoping I can see if I can stick with her 4:40 pace group, which is about a 10:40/mile pace.

2. Run a race on my birthday

Hopefully the second time’s the charm for this goal, because if not, I will have to wait until I turn 34 for my birthday to fall on a weekend again. I’m leaning toward running the Marine Corps Marathon, which is on my 29th birthday, but of course, I will have to see if I get in. I already have my birthday shirt ready to go — the shirt I got for last year didn’t have an age or anything on it.

3. Run in a new-to-me place each month

I always love running in new places — for links to posts about the places I’ve run, check out the Scenic Runs tab. I thought it would be fun to set a goal of running in at least one new-to-me place each month.

This doesn’t have to be a completely new-to-me town — it could be a new part of a town or city, or a trail I’ve never run on before. I’ve already run somewhere new-to-me in January — the Mount Vernon Trail in Arlington, Virginia. A blog post will be coming soon on that run.

4. Run a sub-50-minute 10K

This goal has been hanging around since 2014, but I just feel like I can’t take it off the list until I accomplish it. My fastest 10K in 2018 was 58:36, and taking nearly nine minutes off of a 10K time is a pretty tough challenge. I was less than half a minute away in 2014, and I feel like I’ve just gotten further away.

However, I’m hoping as I train for the Salisbury Marathon, the interval workouts I’m doing will make me faster in general. I also joined a weight loss challenge, and losing some weight and working on eating healthier may help as well. Even if I don’t hit the sub-50 mark this year, I do think I can get closer — maybe at least sub-55.

5. Run the entire NCR Trail

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, so I added it to my list of official goals. I want to run the entire NCR Trail in Baltimore County, officially known as the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail.

Some of my early 5Ks were on the NCR Trail, and I really enjoy running there. My mom and stepdad now live very close by, so I often try to run there while I’m visiting. I’ve definitely run at least the southernmost 8.5 miles of the trail, but I haven’t been to much, if any, of the northern half.

The trail is 19.7 miles, so it would be perfect to work this in as part of marathon training. I’m hoping that I can leave my car where I plan to finish and get my mom or stepdad to drop me off at the other end. Then, I’ll run the entire trail in one run back to my car. Because of the distance, I will probably bring my hydration pack.

Here’s the map if you’re interested.

Blog Goals

I’ve also set goals for my blog for the past couple years. Here are my goals for 2019. I enjoy blogging, so I would blog even if hardly anyone read my posts, but of course, as a blogger, you want to have readers and an engaged audience.

1. Surpass 12,000 blog views

Since I started coming up with blog goals, I’ve always wanted to surpass the previous year’s views, which I’ve done. But for 2019, I specifically want to surpass the 12,000 mark, because that’s 1,000 views a month. In 2018, I had 11,270 views, so this is a reasonable goal.

2. Get to 850 likes on my blog’s Facebook page

I set a goal to get to 800 likes for my blog’s Facebook page, She Runs by the Seashore, in 2018, and I didn’t make it, but I have surpassed 700. I’m at 708 likes now, so 850 seems like a reasonable goal by the end of 2019.

If you don’t already like my page, you can help me get closer to that goal right now!

3. Get to 400 WordPress/email followers

I’m always looking to grow my following in general, and I didn’t get to 300 WordPress/email followers in 2018, but I got closer. The only disappointing thing is that some of them are clearly spam followers. I’d like to remove them, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution for that. So I’ll set the goal at 400 WordPress/email followers, but I’d rather have fewer dedicated followers than a bunch of bots.

You can help me with this goal now, too!

I also set some personal goals. I won’t share them all here, but one of them is to read at least 12 books in 2019. I listened to a lot of books in 2018, and I’m going to continue to do that, but I want to do more actual reading.

Do you have any goals for 2019? Share them with me!

Check out the other posts in the linkup here:

• Zenaida Arroyo: Tuesday Topics: What I’m looking forward to this year
• Kookyrunner: Tuesday Topics: What I’m looking forward to in 2019
• My First 5K and More: Bill Hogan Winter Series #2 Race Recap
• Run Laugh Eat Pie: Tuesday Topics Link-Up #1
• Running on the Fly: 2019 Bring It!