2010 is going to be fun. I’ve spent the past couple weeks scoping out races and compiling my calendar. The two big focuses for the year are getting comfortable with the marathon distance and running competitively in my first two 50 milers. I might draft out more concrete goals as far as time, placing, mileage, etc. closer to the end of the year, but the gist of it is that I’m not going to worry too much about improving on my marathon time but instead just run a bunch of them and enjoy it. The serious time goals will be on the 50 milers. So, without further ado, here’s the (unlaminated) list:
February 21st – HMRRC Winter Marathon – Albany, New York — This is going to be a blast. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about finding a race within driving distance where I can run for a few hours in the mid-winter snow with a couple hundred other folks as crazy as me.
April 19th – Boston Marathon – Boston, Massachusetts — This is probably the race I’m least excited about out of all of them. I hate the city of Boston, I can’t stand those annoying people with their fluorescent BAA track jackets, and there’s going to be so many people faster than me that no matter how fast I run, I’ll be lost in the masses. But, it’s kinda one of those things you have to do once. Or at least it seems that way. Plus, I’ll get to see a bunch of runner friends that I haven’t seen in a while. So, I guess it’s not all bad.
May 2nd – New Jersey Marathon – Long Branch, New Jersey — I thought about doing this one in 2009. It’s close to home, a flat course, and I’ve heard more positive things from people who’ve ran it than negative.
May 30th – Vermont City Marathon – Burlington, Vermont — This one is tentative. I’ve heard great things about the course and know from GMR how beautiful Vermont is, so I’d love to make it up there. But, it’s really close to Lake Placid (schedule) and kinda far from home (distance). We’ll have to see how the legs are feeling and how full the wallet is when spring gets here.
June 13th – Lake Placid Marathon – Lake Placid, New York — I’ve never had much of a chance to explore upstate New York, so it will be good to explore another part of my new home state. The two loop course sounds nice and scenic. And my time from Philly would have put me at 6th place overall in 2009, so if I decide to push for another fast time, this will probably be the race.
July 3rd – Leadville Trail Marathon – Leadville, Colorado — This one’s gonna kick my ass. I’m not great with trails, elevation kills me, and I haven’t yet mastered running in the summer heat. Oh, and there’s a few hills there too… But, it will be a good chance to go back home and visit the family. Also, it will be good to start experiencing some more difficult conditions at the shorter marathon distance.
July 25th – San Francisco Marathon – San Francisco, California — I’m long overdue in visiting my family out on the west coast and so I’ll try to coordinate the trip with SFM and use it as a training run for Lean Horse.
August 22nd – Lean Horse Half-Hundred – Hot Springs, South Dakota — My first 50 miler. I’m super excited about it. The course looks great and it’s within driving distance of my family so I’m hoping to get some support from them out there. It’ll be warm but, again, it’s good practice…
September – Yonkers Marathon – Yonkers, New York — Another race I wanted to do this year but didn’t. It’s close to home, cheap, and if it’s the same time as the 2009 edition, it will fit into my schedule perfectly.
November 7th – New York City Marathon – New York, New York — You may have heard of this one. It’s kind of a big deal. I missed qualifying on time by a couple minutes, but I’ll get in on the 9+1 program. It will be fun to finally get to run all 5 boroughs at once. I’ll be taking it really easy, though, in taper mode for JFK.
November 20th – JFK 50 Mile – Hagerstown, Maryland — This is going to be the main focus of the whole year. I want to take the knowledge from Lean Horse, along with the endurance that a whole year of aggressive running will bring, and combine them to form a solid, competitive run down in Maryland.
I’d love to head out to Chicago too, but I just don’t see how I could swing it. This is going to be serious bucks already. Plus, I think a break from races while I’m gearing up for JFK will be helpful. For the first time in 3 years, I won’t be running the Philadelphia Marathon or Bolder Boulder. That makes me sad, but it’s unavoidable. I’ll toss in a few halves and shorter races here in the city. And, I hope to make it back to GMR, but we’ll have to see how the finances are going. It’s really too bad that I can’t just quit my job and travel around the country running. Anybody want to sponsor me? Or at least carpool?
That is one incredible race schedule. Good luck with it, and I hope that a year from now you write a year in review recapping all of these races. That Leadville race…wow…watch out for it, but I know you know the challenges of Colorado running.
nice schedule robert! youre gonna be fast as hell by the end of the year! ill see you in jerzy for sure (im running the half with my ‘dad posse’) and if you want company id love to do the JFK 50!
Baker, that would be awesome if you did the JFK 50 with me. Let’s roll down there and kick some ass.
That’s a lot of racing. :) Too many for me, but I’m old and you aren’t.
I’ll be doing NJM and hoping to break 3:00 there.
As for Yonkers, it’s not a great marathon. They don’t even close the streets to traffic during the race and we have huge hills here, so don’t expect a PR.
Vermont is a deceptive course — some very tough spots. But scenic, and Burlington was pretty.
Thanks for the tip on Yonkers. I’ll still probably run it since it’s just so convinient. I’m definitely not looking for a PR there.
You’ll be running much faster than me in Jersey. I’m not sure exactly what the target will be, but it’s not sub-3, I know that for sure.
I’ll see you in Boston (hopefully) and then GMR, which I am definitely doing again. :)
I really hope I can make it to GMR again too. It was so much fun last year and it would be great to run with you all again.
OMG, I need a few weeks recovery after having read that. Your plate is full! This should be fun for us, since it means lots of race reports to enjoy. Take pristine care of those legs, you’re going to need them a whole bunch next year. :-)
What a schedule. You are an inspiration.
The best part (for the rest of us) is the steady stream of great blog entries that your schedule will generate. Can’t wait to hear all about it.
Looks like a pretty solid schedule. I’ve run the New Jersey Marathon a few times, and it is actually not too bad at all. They had some confusion last year due to a change in their parking lay-out, and that lead to a delay in the start – it was a cold, windy and wet day, making it a little uncomfortable waiting around for the start.
JFK50 – make sure you sign up when registration opens…it does tend to fill fast. I’ve done this one twice.
My quads are hurting just reading this…
I went to school in Boston, I agree it sucks, but aside from NYC this is THE marathon. Plus you forgot the Wellesley girls!
And I’m probably going to run the SF marathon while training for the fall. Great location, and you get to run the Golden Gate Bridge, but I am not looking forward to those hills…
I see you’ve taken Apple’s “think different” slogan to heart. Now that you’re sub-3 and given the monster stuff you’re inclined to do, and enjoy doing, it makes sense.
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Of course, as Freud never said, sometimes crazy is just crazy.
That does seem ambitious. Watch out for that stretch in May and June where you have a marathon every two weeks.
I hope to do my first Ultra at Lean Horse when I attempt the 50K. I have a summer home in the Hills near there so I’d love to participate. Good Luck and see ya there!
Phil
Um…awesome!
What, no Bolder Boulder?! CAN’T miss the BB!
Wow, that schedule is intense! And I thought I was badass because I’m planning on running two marathons next fall haha!
I’ve run New Jersey. It was a great small marathon – very flat course and great amenities.
Great race calendar. just a quick one for Lake Placid that is is not USATF certifed.