Setting a goal for a half marathon

[Stacy O]

Hey everyone!  I'm currently training to qualify for Boston, but will be running a half marathon in April.  This will be my first ever half marathon, so I want to set a realistic goal.  But I will be incredibly disappointed if I finish it feeling like I could have gone faster.  I have already done a 20 miler in my marathon training and often do 10 milers, so I'm not really worried about the distance... I am worried about the pace.  On my 10 mile training runs, if I run them relatively hard (like a 7 or 8 for effort) I run a 7:40ish pace. 

Any suggestions on what my goal time should be?  Is 1:35 realistic?

Thanks all for your help!

[Jon Allen]

Have you run any other races, like a 10k, recently?  That is the best way to predict.  You should definitely be a fair amount faster than your training pace, if you are going all out.

One idea- don't wear a watch.  If you know you can run the distance, then just start out fairly hard at a pace (effort) that you feel you can sustain for no more than 90 minutes.  Go by what your body is telling you- you would be amazed how accurately it can tell you if you are going to fast or slow.  Then you'll just be surprised at the finish- you might crush your goal time, meet it, or fall short.  But if you run based on how you feel rather than some arbitrary time that may or may not be correct, you will know you ran your best over that distance.

You could also do a mini-time trial by yourself this week- you can find websites that will predict race times based on recent workouts (i.e. 6 mile tempo, etc).