If you read my year in review post (located here:
Has it Been A Year Already?) then you know I had a race every month in 2016. Actually, 2015 saw a race pretty much every month also. I'm trying something different for 2017. I had a half marathon in January but, believe it or not, I have no races scheduled for February or March. Say what??!! Is that possible for an endurance Junkie? I am, after all, a Marathon Maniac and Half Fanatic, otherwise known as a Double Agent, for a reason.
 |
| I actually won all this stuff from Marathon Maniacs in an Instagram Contest. Yeah me! |
I have half marathons on the agenda for April (The Mud & Chocolate Trail Run) and May (Snohomish Women's Run) and then ... nothing. No plans. No races on the calendar. No full marathons hovering over my training plan. No ultras on the horizon. September and October have race probabilities but this summer I have open. Well, there will probably be a 10K for the 4th of July but that's not long distance.
 |
| Mud & Chocolate a couple years ago. Who can resist all this sweet goodness? |
It feels weird to be aimless and yet, I'm okay with it. I feel like my body and my brain have been telling me to chill out, take a break, have a rest, focus on some other stuff for a bit. That's not to say I'm going to quit running. Far from it! I need to stay in half marathon shape, at the very least, in order to run my April and May races and possibly, if the money is there, a half marathon in June for the Skirt Sports Retreat in Colorado.
 |
| Leaping for joy at the thought of a half marathon in Colorado with Skirt Sisters! |
Uh oh, did I just put another race on my schedule? Well, that one is really up in the air because getting there will require a bit of air time in an airplane and that's an expense I have to get past my husband.
 |
| My husband |
Doesn't he look like the kind of sweet, loving guy I could talk into letting me go on a trip without him so I can run a race? He is! But it's been an investment year in his business so our funds might not be as agreeable.
If I can't go to Colorado for the Skirt Sports 13'r race and Ambassador Retreat I'll feel two emotions:
 |
| That Stinks! |
 |
| I'm a sad puppy. |
But I love my husband and I respect our finances and his stress so if I have to I'll run it virtually again like I did last year.
 |
| I still got the swinging skirt medal. |
I would like to run a full marathon again by September or October so my mileage will have to ramp up eventually. Gee ... maybe I'll have to find some half marathon races this summer to use as training runs. Actually, the Hamster Endurance Run will be in September this year. The last couple years I've done the 12 hour and I'd love to use it to reach for 50 miles again. That means I'd better have a marathon scheduled for July or August and a 50K wouldn't hurt though I could just make Hamster a 50K. I'd easily be able to do a marathon in October because I'll have plenty of endurance training built up. I've been seeing advertisements for the Columbia Gorge Marathon, held in October, on facebook and it looks gorgeous! November is the Seattle Marathon and this year it's a new course. I have to run it the first year it's on the new course and, besides, it's one of my favorites. It's tradition! December I need to do a fun Holiday run so I can wear my blinky lights and red tutu so better find a race around Christmas.
It looks like I'll be resting from races in February and March.
You know, Woolley Trail Run is in February. That would make a fun way to get a long run in. I wonder if I could still bang out a 50K? And the medal is awesome!
I'd really like to do the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon again. I really enjoyed it last year. It's in March.
And that, my friends, is how the brain of an endurance junkie and Marathon Maniac/Half Fanatic works. We can't help ourselves. When our bodies are at rest our brains are busy planning our next races. Races. Plural. Got it? Don't judge!
