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I'm leaving today.  Well not quite today but I found out this week that I got picked in the New York City 1/2 marathon lottery earlier this week.  So I will be heading up to New York City late March for another half marathon. 

The NYC 1/2 marathon course runs around Central Park for the first 8 miles or so of the race before heading south down Broadway to finish in lower Manhattan.  I'm looking forward to enjoying the Central Park miles next March compared to my last run in Central Park.  For the 2006 NYC Marathon, the last few miles were run around and near Central Park; by that point in the race, I just wanted it to be done and suffered through those miles for the most part.

It's interesting that NYRR has the same trainwreck on its hands regarding the 1/2 lottery that Houston had earlier this year.  I suppose the fact that races need to institute lotteries is an encouraging sign regarding the fitness/activity level of people. It is just unfortunate that not everyone can get in and run all of these events.  The good thing is that there are several options available out there.

Today marks the 6 weeks of no running point due to my torn right calf muscle.  I saw my doctor today and will start doing exercises to rehab my calf this week.  If all goes as planned, I should be able to start running again in 2 weeks.  That's a good thing because counting the NYC lottery that I got into, I've added four races to my 2011 spring/summer calendar in this 6 week no running period.

I signed up for the 3rd consecutive year for the Conoco Philips Rodeo Run 10k here in Houston in late February. I decided to add another Conoco Philips sponsored event to my calendar as well.  This one's a little farther away than Houston as I'm going to head up to Anchorage in June to run the Mayor's 1/2 marathon.  I also signed up for the Lincoln 1/2 marathon in early May.  That event will be the 2nd leg of my back to back 1/2 weekend for 2011.  The first 1/2 will be the Drake Relays 1/2 April 30th; just waiting for registration to open for that event.