2011 Race Schedule

There are two events which happened to me last year that I guess you could classify as being a combination of inspirational and humbling (or maybe even downright humiliating).  The first happened as I turned the last corner onto the final 400 meters or so of a half-marathon that I "ran" in July: a 60+ year old woman in a sun hat passed me.  Ouch.

The second was an encounter with an individual who was in my MS class that I bumped into at a conference.  After finishing with the standard pleasantries he stated (I am paraphrasing): "Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you have gained a lot of weight in the last few years." Double ouch.

Before moving on to the point of today's post, let me just say that if your brain is putting together a thought which you feel requires you to preempt it with "Don't take this the wrong way", chances are you should just go ahead and keep that thought to yourself.

While neither of these two individuals probably realized the impact these events had on me, I must admit both really ate at me for the rest of the summer.  So I decided to ramp up my training and vowed to do some more serious races in the next season, or at the very least significantly improve my performance in the kinds of races I have been competing in.

Thus, my 2011 race schedule as of January 6th:

• January 8th - half-marathon training program begins (16 organized weeks with a running club in town)
• January 9th - cyclocross race (Bloomington, IL)
• January 22nd - Chilly Chili run (Bloomington, IL)
• January 30th - cyclocross race (Bloomington, IL)
• February 20th - cyclocross race (Bloomington, IL)
• March - nothing as of yet, I have a lot of work travel planned
• April 29th/30th - Illinois Marathon I-Challenge, 5k on the 29th followed by half-marathon on the 30th (Champaign, IL)
• May 15th - May Madness triathlon (Effingham, IL)
• May 22nd - Land Between the Lakes triathlon (Albert Lea, MN)
• June 5th - Pigman sprint triathlon (Cedar Rapids, IA)
• June 11th - Lake Mingo trail run (Oakwood, IL)
• July 9th? - April Sorensen Memorial half-marathon (Albert Lea, MN)
• August 14th - Ironman Steelhead, HALF-FREAKIN-IRONMAN triathlon (Benton Harbor, MI)
• September 4th - Hy-Vee triathlon (Des Moines, IA)
• September 18th - Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival 40 mile mtb race, pending my lottery entry is selected (Hayward, WI)
• September 25th - Wild Wild Wilderness trail run (Oakwood, IL)

Other potential races for which dates have not been set:

• Kickapoo Fat Tire Festival MTB race (planning to enter either the novice or sport categories and attempt to not embarrass myself)
• 24 Hours of Seven Oaks (24 hour team relay MTB race in Boone, IA which might be scheduled for the same weekend as the Hy-Vee triathlon)

See, I told you I was inspired.  Will be tough to get too fat following this schedule. And the number of event related t-shirts I have will increase by approximately 500%.