2011 Race Calendar Starting to Shape Up

With the fall 2010 racing season set to begin, my 2011 race schedule is in full swing as well.  Other than being held hostage by the NYC 1/2 marathon lottery (I didn't realize the lottery remained open until mid November)  the first 6 months of 2011 are pretty much booked.  Of course, I haven't registered for some of these races as registration hasn't opened yet for the smaller events and others have beat the clock price increases that haven't yet occurred.

Here's the remainder of my 2010 and a tentative 2011 schedule to date:

September 5th - Disneyland 1/2 Marathon.  This trip to Anaheim will complete my 2010 Coast to Coast Challenge.  Having completed the Goofy Challenge in Orlando in January, I will get my Disney bling fix en masse: 5 medals for 3 races.

October 9th - Ten for Texas. Yes, I can stay home for Columbus Day weekend for a change.  And yes, 10 miles will be fewer miles than the 26.2 I've racked up over the prior 2 CD weekends (Chicago Marathon in 2008 and Hartford/Boston 1/2's in 2009). 

October 30th - Jazz Half.  I've got a Friday night flight into New Orleans and a Saturday afternoon flight out so it will be a quick visit with family and friends. It'll be interesting to see how many Halloween costumes show up for the 2nd annual half event.

November 14th - San Antonio Rock n Roll 1/2.  I ran San Antonio the year before competitor took over the event.  This will be my first RNR event in quite some time.

February 20th - Austin 1/2.  I've run the Austin 1/2 once before.  I had a less than memorable race experience as I was suffereing with achilles tendonitis coming into the race.  The Austin hills did nothing to help the situation.

April 30th - Drake Relays 1/2.  This will be the front end of my 2011 back to back 1/2 weekend. 

May 1st - Lincoln 1/2.  This will be the back end of my b2b 1/2 weekend.  Omaha will most likely be my flight destination as it is located between Des Moines and Lincoln and also appears to have the cheapest flights of the 3 cities.

June 4th - 13.1 Chicago.  This was a spur of the moment race registration earlier this week.  A $30 fee and a course similiar to the Chicago Half Marathon made me jump.

That's the plan as of now.  Races that may happen, depending on lottery luck and whether or not the event occurs again are:

March 20th - NYC 1/2. If this race doesn't happen, I may consider City-Pier-City 1/2 in the Hague, the Netherlands.  This would be my first race not on US soil.

June 18th - Mayor's 1/2. An Alaskan repeat with a first time visit to Anchorage and a week long post race tour include Kenai Fjord and Denali National Parks may or may not happen this year.  I will most likely decide if this is a go by year end.

October - Disney Wine & Dine 1/2. If Disney brings this race back, I may sign up for it.  Always up for a visit to Orlando; would take a couple of extra days to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter over at Universal.

13.1 Race Series

I signed up for my first 13.1 race series event this morning.  Even with active.com taking their pound of flesh, I charged less than $40 to my credit card with the special discount for the first 100 signees.  I'll be running the 13.1 Chicago Marathon on Saturday, June 4th next year.  The course is mostly an out and back on Lake Shore Drive prety mostly the same route used by the older and bigger Chicago Half Marathon held in September.

I've heard less than stellar comments regarding the 13.1 Race Series events; hopefully, this 3rd edition in Chicago will have all the kinks worked out.  At any rate, it sounds like a great excuse for eating more deep dish pizza!

Saturday Night's Alright for Running

I missed my early morning 5 miler so I had an early evening 5 miler instead.  Less than a mile into the run, I had already had 2 flying insects fly into my mouth.  Oh my! Good thing I was able to spit them out because I'd hate to have to swallow a spider to catch the fly.

Getting Caught in the Rain

I drove over to the Saints Simon and Jude overflow parking lot to run the Nature Trail last night.  I watched the 6 o'clock local weather before heading out the door and I swear I heard Gene Norman say that the storms north of us had no chance of making it down to us but seeing them was encouraging in that we'd have a good chance for rain tomorrow. 
The weather didn't seem as hot when I headed out around 7:00.  About 3 miles into my 7 mile loop, it started to thunder and lightening pretty bad.  At that point, the only option I had was to just continue.  With 2 miles to go, the sky opened up and cats and dogs fell to the ground.  I was already soaked before the rain started so it actually felt refreshing.  I only wished I had a hat to keep the rain out of my eyes.  
Not long after the rain started I got the Pina Colada song stuck in my head; it is still with me this morning. Ugh. 

Enough with the Heat

After having a good week of running (and thinking that I was actually adjusting to running in hot, humid weather), I had a run last night that had me questioning why I would ever want to run ever again.  I heard in this morning's weather forecast that this August is shaping up to be the hottest August ever on record here in the Houston area. 
Late yesterday afternoon, there were a few pop up showers here in The Woodlands.  They weren't big enough showers to really drop the temps any but just made it one big outdoor sauna.  I had a 5 mile run on the schedule so I headed to run the hills of Flintridge.  There was no movement in the air at all; in some places on the concrete pathways, you could just feel heat radiating all around you.  It was so hot, my garmin threw in the towel at the 4 mile mark and just toggled repeatedly between the 3 display screens.  It looked like it was still capturing data from the run but I couldn't make it stop toggling.  At the end of the run, the On/Off button didn't shut it off.  I used the mode/reset button combination to successfully turn it off.  When I downloaded the data, all that showed up was the first 4 miles of the run.
With the heat advisory still in effect, I will be running the mileage on my training plan but just taking it alot slower.  Still hoping for that cool California weather in 2 1/2 weeks!

No Excuses Copycat Edition

Well the good news is that there's lots more running than blogging going on these days.  The last half of July was spent with more skipped long run weekend due to falling off a ladder and visiting my mom.  I know, there are no roads in Ville Platte so it was not possible for me to get a run in while visiting.  The ladder fall was the more legit of the 2 excuses; I actually banged my right shin on the ladder itself so had some swelling there to deal with. 

Reading K's July 31 post over at Running Towards Him, I got motivated for the first time this year.  I know its still early to call it a trend, but I have logged almost 50 miles this month.  I was actually feeling good on my 7 mile Nature Trail loop run this past Wednesday evening. 

With the dog days of summer upon us, my dog has found a way to keep cool. 


My lawn isn't getting much coverage with him blocking the water the entire sprinkler cycle time.  That's ok.... as long as he keeps cool.  He had a touch of heat illness the week before.  He didn't want to eat or go for a  walk for the first time ever.....a few days inside and major spoilage and he's back to normal.