What are you running to?

I’ve got a 4 miler I’m going to try to get through in mid-March, but beyond that I’m just running to get healthier. Although I am running two other “races” later in the year that I’ll be working towards assuming I get through the spring in one piece.

. . . to be ready for my 13th consecutive Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in April. Beyond that, the rest of 2012 is negotiable.

I stopped running altogether in the second half of 2k11 during adjustment to a new job. I’ve planned a 13.1 in March, a 25.2 in June, and may try to do a 50k this summer. I’d like to see how far I can reasonably push myself, without over-stressing and hurting myself.

The first goal is the 7k on St. Patrick’s Day, the 10k the day before my birthday in April, a half-marathon at some point, and a marathon. But the goal is to get back to feeling like I used to, which didn’t include “fluffy” “bloated” or “in pain”.

It’s a brand new race at Disneyland, geared toward women much like the Princess Half Marathon at Disneyworld. My (humble) goal is to finish in 2:30 or less.

I also registered for my very first full marathon on May 6th. I just hope I have the physical and mental stamina to keep right on training after Tinkerbell this Sunday. I have run three half marathons before and tend to like taking it easy in the weeks following the race, LOL.

Two fulls (July and Dec), shooting to drop my time significantly and build the endurance to get better in 2K13.

I’m signed up for 10K in April, not sure what other longer races I’ll do this year.

I was registered for Shamrock Marathon in March, but am deferring after being told by my Dr. to rest for a month due to some shin & ankle problems I’ve been having since I (very badly) ran my third and most recent marathon in November. I’ve got another 2 weeks of non-running. I’ve been trying to stay in shape but I’ve also had bronchitis and not done as much cardio as I’d wanted :-). But as much as I hate to miss my race the rest has been nice and re-motivating!

I’ll probably do a half in October or November, since I think that would transition me pretty well to train back up to the full in March 2013.

I’d love to break my 5K PR and get an under 6:00/mile this summer, too, but since I’m not quite sure where I’ll be after my month off, I’m not going to worry about those too much.

and, yes, i’m doing it just because of the t-shirt.

For 2012, I have about 1 trail race per month on the calendar though I’d say only 3 or 4 of them are focus events, the rest serve as a training runs and yet another excuse to hang out with friends outdoors.

I only started running 2.5 years ago and my first race was a 25k last April (it was also the first time I ran more than 12 miles) so right now I am in the see how far I can take it phase. Each completed distance brings 2 questions: do I want to run further and how do I get better at the just completed distance? That has to be balanced with staying healthy and enjoying the process.

So for now the focus races are:
March: Gorge Waterfalls 50k (Hood River, OR)
August: Angels Staircase 50m (Carlton / Twisp, WA)
Jan 2013: Bandera 50k (Bandera, TX)

Sprinkled through there will be night races in Texas (nothing like 100 degree start temps).

… the Nations’ Half Marathon in March (DC). Then for the rest of the year I’m signed up for a couple triathlons (Olympic distance in June, Half Ironman in August). I’ll probably add one more tri in there, and MAYBE another running race in the fall.

Oh, and I also don’t mind the staying in shape part. (Think I answered this the best I could without treading into the “WHY do you run?” question. Though I am sure we will eventually address that here on SN.)

In high school, I was always the kid who would stand up at a high school sports awards ceremony and listen to the coaches talk about other kids and how good they were at the sport. They would get to me and just say, “well…he’s has a lot of heart.” To me, that was always kind of backhanded and shows that they didn’t have anything really good to say about me. I always had people doubting what I could do and couldn’t do, and marathons somehow ended up on the list. Once I ran that, Boston seemed out of reach for me according to people. Once I ran Boston and I followed that up a month later by running sub-3 at Green Bay, people said I couldn’t do that on a “real marathon” course. After doing that in Chicago and in New York, now I’m just seeing where else I can go.

In terms of confidence, I’m an Eagle Scout, cum laude graduate of an accredited university who can’t get hired in his field. I settled for being a custodian just so I can pay off my loans and continue my favorite hobby. I take pride in my work, but I don’t get the “let me show you what I can do” moments a lot. Running lets me do that. Running proves to me that even though everything else in life around me doesn’t take my effort to better myself seriously, I will always get what I put into running.