Decisions, decisions,...

After a great vacation in Australia with very few km under my belt but quit a few beers under the very same ;-) it is about to call a goal for Tokyo Marathon next month.
I am missing 2 weeks of running = ca. 200 km including 2 long runs. Needless to say that this is not the condition to strive for a new PB. Am I sad about this? Yes and No, but "No" clearly prevails. Why? Well, first of all, to go all out again only some weeks after Ohtawara bears some risk by itself. In addition, the weather in Tokyo was very nasty last year, so there is a not so remote possibility of sub-optimal conditions. Taking these circumstances into account, what target to go for on Feb. 17.?
Well, staying below 3h is a target by itself and getting close to 2:5x, where x<5 (as Mathematicians would put it) is decent enough, I guess. Now let's have a look at the "Yes". I want to tackle my PB this year, because Ohtawara went smoothly and under better conditions (no wind) I would have stayed sub 2:50 for sure. So, a new PB is in reach. This is why I decided to apply for Nagano Marathon in April. I ran there in 2005 and finished in 2:58. The course is reasonably flat, should not have too many windy spots and the organization is just great.

As the soccer players say: "After the game is before the game." Let's prepare for playing hard...