Running in 2013

In theory, this should be my biggest running year yet.

I have this pipe dream of a race calendar....anyone want to sponsor me?
I kid.
Kind of.
'Cause if someone really wants to pay for my races I won't argue that.

I was totally bummed when I got the email telling me that I didn't get into Ogden Marathon.  So imagine my joy when not all of those that did get in went forward to register and I landed in the second round drawing!  Yahoo!

So Ogden is a for sure on May 18th.
Also on the for sure list is the Wasatch Back Ragnar in June.  So. dang. excited.

And at this point, well, that's all that is for sure.  Aaron gave me the big fat thumb's up on another marathon in March, the one I mentioned I hadn't registered for yet.  I am training as though I will be running it, so hopefully we can make that work.  It would help if my sweet baby girl that was such a stellar sleeper when she was a few months old would get back to being a stellar sleeper so that I could get some sleep.  Or heck, just be an ok sleeper.  This whole up every 2hrs thing is ridiculous.

The pipe dream schedule for this year would be:

Sand Hollow Marathon - March
Red Mountain 50k - April
Ogden Marathon - May
Pony Express 5k - June
Drop 13 Half Marathon - June
Wasatch Back Ragnar - June
Layton Marathon - August
Big Cottonwood Half Marathon - September
St George Marathon - October
Pony Express Trail 50miler - October

With a couple of small local (shorter) races with the kids in the summer.

Yeah....I know.
Really I do.
Slightly ambitious.
Both physically and financially.  (but I am good at finding cheap races!  A marathon for $60!)
Like I said, pipe dream.
The likelihood of all of those actually happening is about as high as Congress making any headway this year.  Actually my odds are probably better than theirs.

But I am loving my current mindset of running these solely for fun, not for time.  I was so worried about finish time when I ran that first marathon (well, till I found out I was pregnant, then I wasn't quite as focused on time, though still super aware of what I hoped to hit).  It's kind of fun to just be out on training runs for the sake of running and not watching mile splits.  It's like I've jumped back to that place I finally arrived at while pregnant with Emily and I quit watching the clock.  It's definitely not making me any faster, but hey, you can't have everything.  Distance is increasing again and my body is cooperating, and that makes me happy.

I do need a new half PR for sure.  I feel like I've never really actually raced a half.  I've only actually done two, the first being my first double digit run ever and the second being 3 months after giving birth to my 9th child.  Yeah, I need to actually race one.  The Drop 13 Half and Big Cottonwood Half are the same course, a course on which I know I could kill my previous PR.  Gotta get one of those two in for sure.
St. George marathon is a lottery, so getting in there is a matter of keeping my fingers crossed.  I do have one (possibly two?!) of my kids that have expressed interest in doing that as well, so if that were to work out it would feed nicely into running that at a slow easy pace and using it as a training run for that ultra a couple of weeks later.

I definitely want to log my first ultra, though sadly the one I had planned (Goblin Valley) has been canceled indefinitely.  Serious bummer.

We'll see how things shape up.  Life always seems to throw a wrench into any plans I make, so I'm getting over my type A tendencies and flying by the seat of my pants.  Training with plans in mind and registering with just days to spare makes total sense, doesn't it?