Well, it is less than two weeks from the Chicago Marathon, and I am already thinking about what challenges I want to shoot for in 2013. Is that crazy? I am very competitive with myself, and I know that the best way for me to stay motivated to stick to a regular weekly run schedule is to have a goal (or goals) to work towards. It has worked for me so far, at least...
So I have made the decision to truly shoot for qualification into the Marathon Maniacs running club. To do this, I need to run 3 Full Marathons in a 90 day timeframe. So my three qualifying races are going to be the Disney Full Marathon on January 13th, the Surf City Marathon in CA on Feb 3rd, and the Little Rock Marathon on Mar 3rd.
This is going to be a major challenge for me -- to complete each race, do so without injury, and do so within the race time limits. The reward will be the personal satisfaction of having done something unique and memorable. Why these particular races and time frames?
Well, the Disney Goofy
Challenge was already booked (since April). I love Disney and there is nothing like their Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World to inspire and motivate! After running the 5K and Half this year, and watching all my friends do those and the Full, I knew I wanted to have that experience in 2013 and share it with my W.I.S.H. running team. So, I figured if I am going to shoot
for MM status, I wanted every race to count, and that meant I would have to find two other races within 90 days of
Disney so that the Disney Full would count as MM qualifying race #1.
Qualifying race #2: The Surf City Marathon. At three weeks after Disney, I was a bit worried about
only having three weeks of recovery time before the Surf City race. But knowing
that, I will have to just make recovery my focus for that race. Temps will be low and comfortable so that
will be a bonus. So, why Surf City? Three reasons. First, I will be in Los
Angeles for my 35th High School reunion that same weekend so it was
convenient. Second, I grew up in Los
Angeles and always wanted to run a race in California. And third, it would be cool to add California
as another 'race state' in my list. (And, I get to rest after the race with my Dad and watch the Superbowl together for the first time since I left home to go off to college.)
Qualifying race #3: The Little Rock Marathon. The decision to run this race was for a totally
different reason. That race has the
distinction of having the largest finisher medal on the planet. My running partner ran the race this year and
I got to see that BIG bling. I want
one!!! And I have never been to Arkansas
so it will be cool to visit that state and to add it to my list of 'race
states' as well. Did I mention my buddy Eddie McCoy will be running that race too? Of course, he will be finished hours before I will... LOL
So, this will be the challenge for the first three months of 2013. I will be looking to my running friends (and especially those in the Marathon Maniac group) for "best practices" advice on how to plan for (and survive) this attempt. I am excited to see this through! And for all my friends out there, I would appreciate your prayer support on this crazy endeavor. If any of you live near these races, especially my Loyola High buddies near Huntington Beach, come on down and cheer me on! It would be awesome to see some friends out there to give me that 'boost' to keep me moving forward. :)