I've started to plan my races for 2012. Since I didn't run any half marathons in 2011, I need to accomplish quite a bit next year. I made my plan under the assumption that I won't be getting into vet school. Its easier this way. If I DO get accepted, I could be in one of 5 states and it could totally change what races I have immediate access to/what races I can afford. SO:
January: 3M Half Marathon- Austin, TX
April: GO! St. Louis Half Marathon- St. Louis MO
July: RAGBRAI- IA. (For now, I'm counting this for Iowa even though its not a half marathon)
September: Omaha Half Marathon- Omaha, NE
December: Ole Man River Half Marathon or Althea Iron Girl Half- New Orleans, LA
The method here is that I know someone in these states, they are within driving distance from illinois, or they are the destination for a previously conceived family vacation and happen to conveniently have races available. For example: my best friend lives in Austin, family in SLU, Omaha is drivable (and their finisher medals are recycled glass!), and New Orleans is a vacation. Besides these couple outliers- my plan is to conquer the Midwest first, but I am saving Wisconsin for the Madison Mini.
I'm excited to start training for half marathons again, since the training for Chicago really decreased my half time. I am still pretty confident I will be able to get to my goal time for 2012 which is 1:50:00. I don't know if this is an easy goal or not since it is 7 minutes slower than my current time. Hopefully it will be easy and I can even get into the 1:49 range! With all my recent physical therapy, I know what to change about my stride, and hopefully this will help my endurance, my hips, and my time. RAGBRAI should help with the cross training aspect of racing as well as as few sprint triathlons that I plan to try out. Recent physical developments have pushed me more towards the idea of triathlons and away from the idea of marathons and ultras. I want to run a half iron man in 2013. Swimming will definitely be my weak point, but I don't think I'm alone in that regard.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Running into myself
So let me start by stating my goal: to run a half marathon in all 50 states in less than 15 years. Although I'm starting this near the end of 2011, I actually started the running in 2010 and got two states out of the way (Illinois and Indiana); so I'm counting them.
I'm not sure why I'm making a blog about this endeavor. I don't know if I'm doing it for myself or for others. I'm not posting the link to this blog on my facebook or giving it to my friends. So I guess, in that respect it is more for me, and possibly a random stumbler. I guess I just want to set a really big goal and see what happened.
I ran the Chicago marathon two weeks ago and it was pretty awful. It was probably the most pain I've forced myself to ever run through. It took me more than 40 minutes longer than my goal time, but I finished. I haven't decided yet if I'm proud of finishing, because I kind of knew I would. I had/have tendinitis in both my knees and a pulled hip flexor. I was in relatively severe pain for most of the race. If you can even call it a race at the pace I was running. HAHA. Either way, its over, and it made me realize how much I really like HALF marathons... thus the newly formed goal. I probably won't be running again for another month at least, but I do want to complete one more half before the end of 2011.
I am relatively new to the sport- I started distance running (more than 3 miles 4 times a week) in 2009 after I graduated from college. I've never really felt like an athlete, and there are days when I still don't. I run because of the all the beer I drink, and because I'm too broke to have a gym membership, and because it has literally made me happy. I don't enjoy running while I'm running of course, unless its some brilliant day when I'm feeling very prefonatine, but I've become a happier person because of it. I'm emotionally well-adjusted, which is something I've really never been able to say before. This is one of my big motivators for continuing to run. I think I sound like a human cliche; hopefully this will dissipate with time.
The biggest challenge of this goal will be coming up with the money to run all the races. Maybe I should be doing this for some sort of charity, but right now Its just for my own personal edification.
I'm not sure why I'm making a blog about this endeavor. I don't know if I'm doing it for myself or for others. I'm not posting the link to this blog on my facebook or giving it to my friends. So I guess, in that respect it is more for me, and possibly a random stumbler. I guess I just want to set a really big goal and see what happened.
I ran the Chicago marathon two weeks ago and it was pretty awful. It was probably the most pain I've forced myself to ever run through. It took me more than 40 minutes longer than my goal time, but I finished. I haven't decided yet if I'm proud of finishing, because I kind of knew I would. I had/have tendinitis in both my knees and a pulled hip flexor. I was in relatively severe pain for most of the race. If you can even call it a race at the pace I was running. HAHA. Either way, its over, and it made me realize how much I really like HALF marathons... thus the newly formed goal. I probably won't be running again for another month at least, but I do want to complete one more half before the end of 2011.
I am relatively new to the sport- I started distance running (more than 3 miles 4 times a week) in 2009 after I graduated from college. I've never really felt like an athlete, and there are days when I still don't. I run because of the all the beer I drink, and because I'm too broke to have a gym membership, and because it has literally made me happy. I don't enjoy running while I'm running of course, unless its some brilliant day when I'm feeling very prefonatine, but I've become a happier person because of it. I'm emotionally well-adjusted, which is something I've really never been able to say before. This is one of my big motivators for continuing to run. I think I sound like a human cliche; hopefully this will dissipate with time.
The biggest challenge of this goal will be coming up with the money to run all the races. Maybe I should be doing this for some sort of charity, but right now Its just for my own personal edification.
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