Revised Spring Race Schedule

I haven't posted since my race report on Tuesday because I have taken the last few days off from running to allow my body to fully heal (even though I felt ready to go on Tuesday, I figure it can't hurt to take it easy and fully recover). I've also been really busy the last few days at work and have also failed to get to bed on time this entire week. All of which adds up to not getting up in the morning to run. I have to go to New York for the day tomorrow to take a tour of the New York Stock Exchange with two fixed income associates from one of our clients, so today is my Friday, essentially. My train isn't until 8:30, which means I'll be able to sleep an extra 30 minutes before getting up and running before showering and heading up to NYC. I'll be back by 4 (thank you Acela Express) so it'll be a nice Friday. At any rate, I really do plan on getting back to running tomorrow.

As I said in my last post, I've revisited my Spring racing schedule and have changed things a bit to better fit our schedules. We had planned on going to Cincinnati the first weekend in May to get some wedding stuff done, which meant that I would be able to run the Flying Pig Half Marathon. These plans had been pretty much in place until Christmas, so I thought I wouldn't be around the run the Frederick Half Marathon which is that same weekend. Unfortunately, Annie is organizing a whole series of opera scene performances for Peabody undergrads (a process that is remarkably similar to herding cats) and so we won't be able to take those days off like we had hoped. Luckily I hadn't paid the Flying Pig registration fee so all is not lost. But the Frederick Half is totally full and has a 125 person waiting list, so I'm not able to run that race either. I'm not sure what the 125th person on that list is thinking...perhaps they're eternal optimists? Maybe they're actually pessimists and they think 125 runners will be killed in a freak gasoline fight accident prior to race day? Who knows? At any rate, that's a bummer, as I would have liked to have been able to run another half marathon as planned. Instead, I needed to find some other races to run in May. Where possible, I've linked this post to the race's websites for those who are interested.

I've registered for the Apple Blossom 10K race on May 3rd in Winchester, VA. It's part of the Apple Blossom Festival in the area and it's only 20 minutes from my parents' house. So we'll drive up there on Friday evening and visit them and Redford. I'll go run the race the next morning and then hopefully talk them and Annie into meeting me at IHOP afterwards so I can FEAST! I haven't hit an IHOP in a long time so it'd be nice to dig into a Rutty Tooty Fresh and Fruity for old time's sake.

The next race I signed up for is the 10-miler that's associated with the Delaware Marathon on May 18th. I'm not sure why they don't have a half marathon, but this will be a great race. It's really small, as they're limiting the enrollment to just 300 runners. Right now there's 77 registered, so I need to get on that so I get a spot. It should be a lot of fun and the course should be exceedingly flat since Delaware is flat as a pancake. And with such a small number of runners, I don't have to worry about seeing 5,000 other people wearing the race T-Shirt!

And the final race that I'll be running this Spring is actually at the border between Spring and Summer. It's the Survivor Harbor 7 race here in downtown Baltimore. It's supposed to be a great race and it runs along my morning run route so I can just walk to the starting line. This race is capped at 2,000 runners, so I already registered since it's really popular. It'll be much less congested than the Kelly St. Patrick's Day 5K, which had about 4,000 runners. There's a 3 mile option for the race too, but they start after the 7-milers. Should be a very cool race because survivors of various diseases (cancer, heart disease, etc.) can run in a special category.

So that's the Spring race schedule now. Annie will be leaving for her summer program (Opera in the Ozarks , which is literally in the middle of nowhere Arkansas) on May 22 and will be gone until July sometime, so I'll have plenty of time to train and race and live like a free man...I mean, like a man desperately missing his fiance. Yeah, that's what I meant. So, I imagine I will plan to run a race in another part of the country during that time as a little vacation and to branch out from running in the DC-Baltimore area for once. Now I just have to pick my race!