Race Schedule Revisited

Last post, I mentioned that I finally had a tentative race schedule, but then didn’t post it. Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be vague, I just am still iffy on a couple of conflicts in the fall. The only “for sure” race is Old Dominion Memorial 100 in May. I really wanted to do something earlier in the spring, but I couldn’t find a 100 that would work. So, I have to wait until May. Getting to races from El Paso is kind of complicated – it is a 12 hour drive to San Diego and a 12 hour drive to Dallas, just to give you a perspective of how isolated we are. Travelling to the Midwest, Northeast, East, or Northwest is an all day journey by plane. This usally means that we have to leave on Thursday for a Saturday race because more often than not we end up delayed in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago or Denver (El Paso has very few direct flights to anywhere). At Umstead last year, my husband had to wait until Friday to travel to North Carolina and ended up stuck in the Dallas airport for 12 hours before finally arriving in NC at 3 am. He only slept for one hour before having to get up with me to go to the race. He then stayed up again through the night to crew for me (including pacing me for 25 miles in the middle of the night).

In the fall, there are many more options that are relatively close, so I’m just trying to see which one fits the best (Ultracentric, Javelina, ATY). I’ve been dying to try Javelina and ATY, so I hope one of them works out. The problem with running most of my 100s on asphalt, is that it takes a little more time to recover. If I do Javelina (instead of Ultracentric) I might be able to do ATY too because Javelina is on dirt and should be less stressful on the body. That would be cool! Anyone out there thinking about Javelina? I thought about doing FANS again because it is such a well-run race (great people, great support) but it was really hard to get to from El Paso, so I think I’m going to skip it this year. Maybe I can convince Julie to head south this year!

On the running front, I got in 20 on Sunday and 10 yesterday. I am back in the gym and doing some pilates, but I’m really trying to take it easy. I’m just so excited to be training again that I get a little spastic about it! I slept in today because I realized I didn’t take a day off last week. It felt great (8:10 am!), and since it is the last day of winter vacation, it was the last day for the boys to sleep in, too. Tomorrow, I hope to get in 20 because we then travel to Florida where my running schedule is a little iffy. Other than the easy marathon, I don’t know how much running I will be able to do. Okay, off to mail in my OD Memorial 100 application! Yeah!