The Ever Evolving Race Plans

 Shortly after I finished the Chicago Marathon I had visions in my head of completing another marathon this spring.  Those who know me know that I'm determined to accomplish my goals.  Chicago was my very first marathon and I didn't quite hit the 4 hour mark goal I was aiming for.  I wanted to get right back on the horse and give it another shot.  After dealing with some aches and pains for the rest of the year I finally gave things a rest and picked up running again in January.  Things went well, but I might of did too much too soon.  After completing a run streak of 41 days I wound up taking a week off to start March.  I've eased back into running, but know that I'm too far off in training to be ready for any marathon before summer.  Let's be honest, I'm not going to do a summer marathon since the heat would definitely derail any plans of making 4 hours.

I finally signed up to do the Wisconsin Half Marathon on the same weekend I originally hoped to run a marathon.  Now there is no excuse to try and train like I'm running a marathon - not yet anyways.  This race also gives me a gauntlet of 8 races in 11 weekends.  My spring/summer schedule is looking like this:

3/30 - Shamrock Shuffle - 8K
4/6 -  Good For Like - 5K
4/27 - Ravenswood - 5K
5/3 - Wisconsin Half Marathon - 13.1M
5/18 - Chicago Spring Half - 13.1M
5/24 - Soldier Field - 10M
6/6 - Ragnar Relay - ?
7/10 - Bastille Day - 8K
7/12 - Devil's Lake - 13.1M
7/15 - Strike Out ALS - 5K
7/20 - RnR Chicago - 13.1M
8/23 - North Country - 13.1M
8/24 - Wine Country - 13.1M
9/7 - Chicago Half

I still might throw in Heatbreaker or BTN Big 10K on 7/26.

I had always envisioned doing a fall marathon as well and that is definitely still in play.  I threw my name in the lottery for NYC.  I'd also do the lottery for Chicago and would of most likely done Grand Rapids as a back up.  Well those plans all changed as well.  My friends were going to get married the same weekend as Chicago so I with held entering the lottery for that.  I did get great news today though...

I got accepted into the NYC Marathon!  I was of of the 9,170 runners chosen out of a pool of 77,087 who entered the lottery.  I'm very excited and feeling pretty lucky.  I have to start making travel arrangements.  November is going to be a crazy month now since I'm also doing RnR Las Vegas again on November 16th.  For someone who is in only their 3rd year of running and being able to do Chicago and New York as their first 2 marathons is pretty special and pretty crazy.  Disney world will be my 3rd marathon come January.