race calendar for the winter and spring

So my race calendar is really open right now.  Last year at this time I was pretty full.  I have been looking and can't find anything that either strikes my fancy, is local, or a place where I would like to pay to run.  I have my usual on the list.

February

Love the Run Your With - my birthday 5K

March

Running the half marathon.  Its local so I can't pass it up.

April

No Cherry Blossom!  Yep I have not signed up for it.  Good Bye my least favorite race in DC.

May

Heading to the Burgh for the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.  Very Excited for this race!

Marine Corps Historic Half - Hospital Hill may try to kill me again, but it is so close to my house that I have to make this a yearly run.

That takes me to June and summer running.  I haven't looked at the fall yet.  There are some local races that I just like to run.  I'm sure that I will also throw in some 5Ks and other random races here and there.  Is it bad that I just feel like I should have some more races on my calendar??  

Army ten miler = sucktastic run

So today was the Army Ten Miler, my favorite ten mile race.  Now that may not really be fair since the only other ten miler that I have ran has been the Cherry Blossom Ten miler (which I do not care for).  I have been sick for almost two weeks with a head cold/ chest cold.  I have been feeling much better these last few days but nowhere near what I should feel like.  Before I continue please be warned there will be some excuses and maybe a bit of whining. 

But before I get to the excuses...

We picked up our friend Glen who was running with a random stranger's bib (Peter). 

For the rest of the day we referred to Glen as Peter or Pete as I liked to call him.  We also enjoyed making up Peter's back story.  This was going to be Glen's first ten miler.  Megan and I hooked him up with some gu and a garbage bag to start the race with or as we referred to it, racing chic. 

We arrived and headed to the mall to use some bathrooms with running water.  Because that is how we roll.  After we enjoying the running water we headed to bag check at the Pentagon.  Megan is not a fan of the Army Ten Miler, so she was hoping that it was going to be a different experience than last year, which she didn't enjoy.  Well it was different..not always in a good way for her.  As Megan was grabbing a bag to put her backpack in we ran into Gary, Kevin and Adrienne.

Always great to run into friends.  And once again, Gary finds us in 30,000 people with no problem.  We are convinced he has a tracking device on either Megan or myself. :) 

Before the race starts some Army guys parachute down.

 

 

 We checked our bag and headed to the portapotties.  What a mess.  Last year our corrals lined up on the street.  This year they had the corrals in the middle of the parking lot right up against the portapotties.  Ugh.  Talk about not having room to form a line.  I found an endish portapotty and talked the people around me to make a new line.  People were in a super long line and sending people down the line to get in the portapotty.  That's not how it works.  So the people to our left had 3 portapotties and I stood poised to take the one in front of me when the person came out.  Turns out that was a great plan that the guys beside us used too.  In no time we were in our purple gate waiting for our long walk to the start line. 

 

Glen decided he was going to run with me.  I didn't know how long I would be able to run since I still wasn't feeling the greatest and I didn't know how the whole breathing thing and running thing would work out.  Turned out it didn't last long.   I sent Glen (I mean Peter) on his way before mile two.  I was quickly realizing it was going to be a sucktastic run.  I started walking around mile 3 and was hating life.  I did really enjoy the mile three water stop Army guys.  Ah the bright spot in my lack of a real run.  I ended up walking a large portion of the run since I just felt tired and sucking wind when I tried running.  I guess when you don't eat right the days before a run, you don't have a lot of energy to run.  That and I haven't moved off of the couch for 2 weeks (well other than going to work) (I warned you that the excuses would be flying). 

I wanted this run to be better than last year.  I really felt like I could PR on this run.  Well sometimes what we plan on, just doesn't happen.  It wasn't my day to conquer this race.  Next year I will return to PR!!  I like the race, just not when i am sick. 

 

 We ran into Bill and Jeff and Marie!  Always good to see friends.

 Skipping through the lot with Peter.

Always fun riding the trolley back to the south lot.

 

Afterwards we headed for some french toast.  Yumm!!! 

 

 

Army Ten Miler, it wasn't real fun this year, but next year watch out!

 

Last run of the year

So tomorrow I plan on running not 1 race but 2 races!  Megan and I are running Ringing in Hope a 10K race at 10 am. 

)

Then later that day we will be running the Fairfax Four-Miler at 6pm.  I'm excited to run this one because we get hoodies!  I love hoodies!  We should also see some people from run club, so that is always fun when you get to hang out with friends. 

So looks like we are running out of 2011 and running into 2012.

Am I crazy??

Not sure what some people look for when they are choosing a race to run.  I like races that are on the smaller side.  I love races that have door prizes (who doesn't like the chance to win something).  I like races that have some yummy food and a fun vibe.  I also have been looking at races that are in states that I have never ran in.  I know I am never going to be the girl that ran in each of the 50 states or even the just the lower 48 but I figure I can see what I can knock out while I am having fun running.   So when the Hershey Half marathon fell through I was obnoxiously obsessively looking for another race to take its place.  Well I didn't get to check off any new state, which is fine, because I wouldn't have checked off a new state with the Hershey race since I ran in Philly last year.  I just loved the idea of a chocolate aid station and enjoying the park the day before the race.  So now I am running the Heritage Half closer to home.  My next race that I was looking forward to was the Derby Marathon and Mini.  That one goes on sale on August 8th.  After the sell out for Hershey Megan and I were worried about not putting this one off too long or else we could have a repeat of Hershey.  Well after some digging around I have found out that it sold out in March last year.  So we will register for that one soon.  It doesn't seem like it is the hellfire rush that we were imagining.  Who wouldn't want to run the track at Church Hill Downs? I also get to check off Kentucky.  As a bonus I get to see Louisville. :)  Another thing that is on my big running checkoff sheet is to run an inaugural race.  Well folks it looks like I have found that one.  Even though it used to be the Suntrust National Marathon, I figure new name, new organizers, so it is an inaugural race!  The Rock N' Roll series is coming to DC!  Yep  I signed up today.  For the next two days it is only sixty dollars so Megan and I will be running the Suntrust Rock N' Roll National Half marathon! 

After paying for 2 halves in the past 48 hours I think that will be it for awhile on the half marathon front.  First off I think Megan is going to start to disown me as a friend if I nudge her toward any more running events.   We still have some 5K sprinkled in among the bigger races.  I am going to run the 9/11 run in DC since this is becoming an annual run for me.  Along with the Will Run for Chocolate run in Dec. (I get to finally check of Maryland) and the Love the Run your with in February.  I also need to squeeze in a 5k (maybe a turkey trot) for the Girls Run with Pride group at school.  I haven't even started to look at that projected schedule.  I feel like I have ran a lot more races this year or rather this upcoming year.  I might have to sit down and figure that one out.