Three Things Thursday: Capital City Half Marathon edition

1. My road trip to Ohio begins today! Of course I left all of my packing until last night and finished it up this morning before I headed out. It's not just a simple trip that requires getting in a car and pointing it towards Ohio today. Nope. First I'm headed to Milwaukee, where I'll park my car and hop on the Amtrak to Chicago, where I'll meet up with Peggy at Union Station. Then we'll point the car towards the Buckeye State.

2. Looking at that forecast scares this Wisconsin girl a little bit. When you look at the hourly forecast it says it'll already be 70 at 8 a.m. Saturday morning when the race starts. 70? At 8 a.m.? And I've still got to run 13.1 miles? This Wisconsin girl isn't used to running long distances in that kind of heat. Remember, other than the crazy warm March we had, it's been in the 40s and 50s around here. We were lucky to hit 60 earlier this week. So seeing that forecast is a bit scary.


3. So of course weather comes into play when I set some goals. This isn't my A race for the spring. I'm holding out for Green Bay to go all out. But still, I want to do well. So while this is still essentially a training run for me, I would like to push it a bit harder than I did two weeks ago at the Oshkosh Half. That being said, my goals for the race are:

A Goal: Sub-2:20. This would be a new PR. Still not sure I'm in PR shape though. 

B Goal: 2:25. I think this is possible. 

C Goal: 2:27, slightly faster than Oshkosh.

D Goal: Enjoy the course, show some Badger pride as I run through Columbus and have fun.

Bonus: I'm super excited for the national anthem. The race organizers announced earlier this week that Jerry DePizzo, the saxophonist for O.A.R. (one of my favorite bands) will be performing the national anthem on race morning. The guy is absolutely amazing to listen to. Take a listen to his rendition of the anthem at last year's race.

OK. I'm off to Columbus. I'll be back either late this weekend when I get back to Wisconsin (doubtful) or early next week to fill you in on all the Ohio happenings. Or check out my Twitter feed, @BadgerJen2002, for more timely updates. And because I'm going to Columbus and O.A.R. is on my mind, I leave you with this appropriate video, "Road Outside Columbus."