It is that time of year, I registered for my first race last week which means my 2013 race plans are finally coming together. However the schedule is still not complete, I don't have my class schedule for the fall semester so a few races are up in the air this fall, but I will comment on that below.
Overall, due to my school schedule (started grad school in January which is roughly 1 weekend per month) my calendar is looking quite bare compared to recent years, but after last year I am looking forward to it. While I enjoyed all the races I participated in last year it seemed that once the summer months hit I was so busy running in races that I forgot to just go out for a good Saturday afternoon jaunt in the mountains. Plus we had record snow last year so the trails up high didn't open up until mid June. This year however, we are just slightly below average which means we have less than half the snowfall we did last year!
So here is what it looks like right now:
Hatcher's Pass Marathon -
July 5
White River 50 -
July 27
Resurrection Pass 50 -
August 10
Ksugi Ridge -
September 7
Eqinox Ultra-
21 September (if no TNFEC)
TNFEC 50 Atlanta -
28 September (if no Equinox)
Winter Solstice 50 -
12 December
A few notes are needed here. White River 50 will be the big focus race, I will shoot for getting my Western States qualifier at this race but have set my personal goal below that. Also this will be my first out of state ultra so it should be loads of fun! If I am feeling up to it 2 weeks later is Resurrection Pass, which I will tentatively plan, but if I am am wasted after White River I won't run it. Normally these races would both be the last weekend in July but Resurrection Pass is under a new director so the date has changed. Which also means the race itself could change so it will be interesting to see how that pans out.
As mentioned earlier I don't yet have my school schedule for the fall semester, but 2 out of the 3 races here seem plausible. There is a strong possibility I will not have class that first weekend in September which means Ksugi Ridge should happen. This is a new race that is approximately 27 miles in Denali National Park, looks really run so it should be a good one. If I have class the 21st then I will head to Atlanta to run The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler. However, if I class on the 28th then I will run Equinox. I am pretty bummed I won't be able to do both races, but either race I do will be a great time.
The Winter Solstice 50 brings me to another topic, Susitna 100 in 2014. The Susitna races are 11 months out but since it takes place in the middle of February I will need to start training once the snow flies in November. I won't go into too much detail right now on that race other than the Winter Solstice is a new race so I plan to use the 50 miler as a training run for Susitna 100 a few months later.
As you can see there is no 100 miler in 2013. I applied for Western States but didn't get it, but plan to keep applying until I do. I did consider applying for another 100 miler but that didn't work out. 2014 is looking to be my entry into the 100 mile distance, which I am actually feeling good about since it gives me another year to run more ultra distance races and gain the experience.
On a closing note I got LASIK eye surgery on the 28th of January. So far the results are great! I went from worse than 20/400 in both eyes (big E was blurry) to about 20/25 in both eyes. Running is so much more enjoyable not having to worry about contacts or glasses. I also think that my vision now is better than my corrected vision has been for years! With that said I am really looking forward to hitting the trails once the weather warms up!
Below are a few pics I took 5 days after surgery enjoying my new eyeballs.
