Racing Plans 2013

I've got my racing schedule for the year. Woo-hoo!

April 28: Ravenswood Run 5K.
This is in my neighborhood and benefits the community food/health program that runs out of my church.I have volunteered in different years and now run it two years in a row. I'm excited to support it again and take some time off last year's PR!

June 23: Chicago Women's Half Marathon
I ran this last year and had a great time. It was my first half marathon and convinced me that this is my sweet spot in terms of distance. (I had run this event before when it was the Fleet Feet Women's 5/10k Festival.) This one is also meaningful to me because it's connected to the American Heart Association's Go Red For Women campaign, an effort directed at educating women about the risks of heart disease, which is (still!) frequently thought to affect mostly men and has different (and more subtle) symptons in women. Heart disease runs through both sides of my family so this is a health issue "close to my heart", so to speak.

October 13: Chicago Marathon
A week later, and registration is still closed due to the technical problems with Active.com. But somehow I managed to get in during the three hours they were open last Tuesday.
     Seriously, it makes no sense for me to do this, this year or anytime in the near future. I won't be able to train to the extent that I would really like to be able to. And yet...
     Though it's not an official charity of the marathon, I will be raising funds for Chicago Lights, the non-profit arm of the church I work for that does amazing work in fighting poverty, specifically in the areas of education and literacy, and hunger and homelessness. I'll have more information about them as the year goes on.

So those are the ones I'm training for. I'll also run a couple for fun, probably the Elvis Is Alive 5K in August, the Run Against Traffick 5K in September, and then something in November/December, just so that my running season doesn't end with the marathon.

I gave serious, serious thought to getting a coach this year. For so many reasons. And I probably will in the future. But this year the money picture is just a bit too tight...

The other issue is that I can safely say that over the past four years, I've managed to keep to my training plan about, oh, one week in the month. If that. Between work and kids my schedule is not truly my own. And I think I would be frustrated to be paying for a coach and then unable to take her advice. Once they're old enough that I can leave the house in the morning and come back before breakfast, well, then it's a different story. By then we'll also only be paying one daycare fee and the money issue will be resolved. So, maybe in 2015... Which would be when I'd likely be itching to do another marathon again...

Happy running!