Schedule of Races for the rest of 2014

May 9, 2014 Faux Runner Comments 0 Comment

2 weeks ago, I did not have a fall race on my schedule. Now, I have a heavy schedule of races for the rest of 2014. And in spite of some life changes including my littlest minion starting Kindergarden, I have goals for every one of these races. I’ll most probably ~~be carried away and add races to this~~ tweak this slightly, but here is my race schedule as it stands for the rest of the year.

July 4th: Peachtree Road Race
I’ve always run this as a fun race, except for the one year I ran with a time goal and was disappointed. I later realized that a goal is kind of hard to achieve in the Peachtree given the crowd, the high July temperatures of Atlanta and the hilly course; especially for slower people like me starting in the back corrals. This year, I ran it just to be a part of the 60,000 making the annual pilgrimage down Atlanta’s most famous road and with the help of some unexpected cool weather, had a lot of fun! This year, I have a goal. Not an aggressive goal, but a simple one of running the 10k under 1:15. My goal is to make this my “normal” pace and be stronger on the hills.

September 6th: Divas Half Marathon, Peachtree City
This is my BIG race of the year. And my goal is to run sub 2:40 (about a 12mm pace). About 2 hours drive from home, this is a new event this year and the course has not yet been released. The course is an unknown, but knowing the Atlanta area it will be expected to have at least “rolling hills”. And the temperatures are still hot at high 70s/low 80s. These are not the best conditions for an aggressive time goal, so I’ve left the aggressive time for a later race. And its on my birthday. More reason to party and celebrate

September 18-20: Ragnar Relay, Napa Valley
With the amazing news earlier this week, this is my bucket list race! I’m excited to be running the Ragnar Relay, Napa Valley with the team of Badass Mother Runners, lead by Dimity and Sarah at Another Mother Runner. My goal for this is to have as much fun as humanely possible and then have some more fun on top of it!! And also to run my three legs of the race strong and cheerful. Training will require me to do some nighttime runs (which will be a huge challenge for paranoid me!) and back to back runs.

November 8th: Alien Half Marathon
This race will be my 2nd big time goal race. And this race is to go as close to 2:30 as I can. The race has been moved from earlier August time to the cooler november month. The course is mostly flat and is close to home (about 20minutes drive). Except for the fact that the race will be held at 6:30pm, the conditions are as ideal as I could get. It will still be just 6 weeks out from Ragnar, but since Ragnar is more a fun run, I expect to be fully recovered and ready to race. Training for nighttime runs in Ragnar should help me with nighttime running for the Alien Half Marathon.

November 27th: Thanksgiving Half Marathon
This half marathon has kind of become a tradition and an excuse to run and shop the next day. I’ve had the best and worst races here. This year my goal will be just to run strong on the hills and to keep the running legs going for the Dopey Challenge.

Jan 8-11: Dopey Challenge
Although this is a 2015, I’m including it in my list of races for this year. After a hard and hopefully rewarding year, my goal for the Dopey Challenge is to have fun and run strong in the marathon regardless of the time. A lot of my training will include back to back runs and will feed into Dopey. Perhaps I should throw in a few back-t0-back 2am wakeup calls as well.

Let the training begin! In the next few weeks, I will share my training plan and will also be sharing my training week as I move forward. Along with my ramblings and challenges in how I continue to train while taking on a new challenging job.

Will you be at any of these races? It is always great fun to meet up with virtual running buddies. Just don’t be surprised when I mimic this meme …