2012 Race Calendar

Now that I officially have a job and an address and a steady paycheck and other things normal people have, I can start planning my life, aka my running vacations. The past six months I’ve been choosing races based on the following questions: 1) Where the heck am I? 2) Where will I be this weekend? 3) Is there a race that is not a 26 mile trail run in my general vicinity? 4) Do I have enough money to run as a non-bandit?This strategy actually worked pretty well. In 2011 I ran…

• New Orleans Rock and Roll ½Marathon, wherein my two girlfriends and I each ate seven times more calories than we burned in the race.
• Six Tunnels to Hoover Dam, a 1/2 Marathon-10K-5K race just outside Las Vegas
• A forgetable 5K in Boise, Idaho
• Ghengis Khan Grasslands Extreme 1/2 Marathon in Inner Mongolia - my favorite race to date.
• Night Owl run in Livinston, Montana. This was a fun almost five miler, held in the evening so they could give out free beer (in a really nice beer glass), hot dogs, hamburgers, and chips. I LOVED this race!
• Leawood Labor Day 5K in Leawood, Kansas
• Dirty 1/2 Marthon and 10K. I did the 10K, thank God. This was a tough trail run in the Sandia Mountains by Albuquerque, NM.
• Standin’ On the Corner 10K in Winslow, AZ. This 10K was so sparse that I acutally won! Woohoo. My first (and probably only) victory.
• Disney World Wine and Dine ½ Marathon
• Renie Run, a 5K at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland
• Day of the Dead 10K in Detroit, Michigan

Then I ran out of money, and had to pass on the Seattle ½ Marathon and the Las Vegas Rock n Roll ½ Marathon. I was sad that I missed the Seattle Marathon, but I’m glad I opted out of the Las Vegas one. The ½ marathon course looked terrible and after the race reports about tainted water started surfacing.Anyways, now that I have said job, I can have a fancy race calendar on my blog like Sarah and Cely and other runner-bloggers have. Due to lack of funding and my aversion towards driving mountain passes in the snow, all my running will be in Denver for the first few month. January

• 8^th: Twin Lakes 10K, Westminster, CO. This is part of the Rocky Mountain Road Runners series.

February

• 11^th: Ralston Creek Half Marathon in Arvada, CO – unless the race sells out before I get paid. I’m training for it anyways!
• 12^th: Platte River 7 miler in Denver, CO.

March:

• March 17^th: Canyonlands Five Miler in Moab, UT – unless it’s snowing in the mountains, which is probably will be.
• March 25^th: Tri-State 20 miler: Starts in Maine, runs down the New Hampshire coast, and finishes in Massachusetts. I REALLY want to do this race (it’s during my Spring Break), but don’t know if I’ll have the money. If you see ads go up on this blog, you’ll know why!

April

• 7^th: City Park 4 miler in Denver, CO
• 14^th : Kevin Whirlwind Horse 10K in Spearfish, SD

May

• 6^th: Stapleton 5 miler in Denver, CO
• 27^th: Wyoming ½ Marathon in Laramie, WY

June

• 16^th: Grandma’s Marathon: Duluth, MN. I’ve already paid for this one, so it’s a go. I haven’t run a marathon in 10+ years, so I figured it’s time to do another one. This race is supposed to be GORGEOUS.

So that’s it for now! I’d better start running…