After the women's marathon at the 2012 Olympics elite US runner Shalane Flanagan, who finished tenth, made a smart observation about setting targets. From Peter Gambaccini's interview published by Runner's World:

It's a bit of a bummer. I was hoping for top 10 as my first goal. I was in it for a while, but it got much harder later. Jerry asked me to stay connected to the pace, and that's what I tried to do. It's hard to stay on it. I got gapped at some point, and it was hard to fight back. I saw someone at 40k, and chased her. It's heartbreaking when you put in as much training as we did. But, as I always say, 'If you hit all your goals, you're not aiming high enough.'

(cf. PleasantSurprises (2002-08-08), LoseTrack (2002-11-11), ...) - ^z - 2012-08-27