Winter Schedules

It's a quiet evening at Welshrunner Towers. After a 3 month stay my parents have returned to the "old country". We took them to the airport early this morning, and the Gavster is wondering why "nanna and Grandpa Wales" are not here tonight. He's gone into their room several times to look for them. Nancy is off cycling around Decker Lake with some friends, and Gavin and I have been making pasta and playing with our toy cars.

My winter race schedule is coming together with a series of races and events leading up to what may be my first 100 miler - Rocky Raccoon - in February. I am also planning to reprise my coaching role with Round Rock Fit when it starts up again in August - I don't want to neglect my road running as it helps maintain my pace. Like last year, I will extend my long runs on Saturday (get there early and get in a good 10 miles or so before the RRFit run) and add in a long trail run on Sunday to give me some solid back-to-back weekends. I am getting back into my early morning midweek neighborhood runs and have found a good training buddy for the Wednesday evening trail run.

Anyway, my race season starts with me possibly pacing a friend at the Cactus Rose 100 miler in November. It's run at the same location as the Bandera race, and I thought I might also volunteer to help mark the course so I can go up a few days in advance and get an idea of the route.

Then I'll run the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll marathon a few weeks later. I signed up for it at the Austin marathon expo in February and got a really great deal (and a straw cowboy hat that Gavin loves???!!). It's the first time the Rock 'n' Roll franchise has been in San Antonio and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to run it. It looks like a faster course than Austin too, so maybe I can set a new PR.

Next up are two of my favorite races - Sunmart and Decker. Last year, Decker took place the week before Sunmart and I used it to run a good fast hilly 20k in preparation for my first 50k the week later. This year they are on the same weekend, and because it is the 30th anniversary of Decker they are turning it into a marathon/half marathon. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do, so I'm going to try and run both - the Sunmart 50 miler on Saturday and the Double Decker marathon on Sunday.

Then in January comes the Bandera 100k (hopefully I will have gotten a sighter from Cactus Rose) and finally Rocky Raccoon in february. As the Austin marathon is only the week after Rocky, I may give it a miss this year. Maybe I'll do the Mardi Gras marathon in New Orleans instead - that would be a fun trip.

Although the current plan is to make Rocky Raccoon my first 100 miler, I am very tempted to try the Arkansas Traveller 100 this coming October. There are many reasons why I shouldn't, and I'd half hoped my wife would veto a trip to Arkansas, but it turns out she thinks it is a great idea and is excited to go. If I'm going to do it, I need to decide pretty quickly so I can start training for it.