Looking Ahead To 2011

Well, Christmas is over. Thankfully. Too much food and temptation and lately I've not been disciplined enough to resist. Grrrr..

Anyway, today is the start of a brand new week and another opportunity to prove myself. I did not have a good week last week but I am set to redeem myself beginning this morning. I suppose one good way of helping me focus is to take a look at what lies ahead. I'll have to train hard to accomplish my goals and complete these races.

With that, here's what's on my race calendar in 2011:

Feb. - Surf City Marathon: I'm already registered for this, Marathon No. 3. There are only five Sunday runs left before the marathon! Insane!

March 20 - Los Angeles Marathon: I'm going to try and run two marathons in six weeks. It should be interesting. My plan as of now is to try and PR at Surf City and then run LA mostly for fun. Well, I'll try and have a good finish time of course but I don't know if I'm going to bust myself to PR. I think I'll be glad to just finish it when it comes around.

June 4 - Fontana Days Half Marathon: I've been wanting to run this race since 2008! Okay, that's only two years I've missed but seriously, I've been dying to run this race. Fontana Days was my first-ever race as I ran the 5K in '08 but I was not able to run this race in 2009 or 2010. I made sure to prioritize this race for next years. The finish line for this race is about four miles from my house! Plus, the half-marathon course is all downhill.

June 11, San Bernardino Mud Run: I'm not quite sure if I'm actually going to run this - I probably will end up doing this - but my daughters are really wanting to run the kids Mud Run. Yvie will ask me periodically 'When's the next Mud Run?' June 11, sweetie.

June 18 - Camp Pendleton Mud Run: The big daddy of them all. There are four dates in 2011, all in June - 4, 5, 11 and 18. We're running the 18th next year mostly because of my conflicts with the other weekends.

July 31 - San Francisco Marathon: Famous last words - after finishing the San Francisco Marathon last summer, I told my wife "Never again. I'm glad I did it but I don't want to run this race again." Ha HA! Joke's on me because not only am I going to run the full marathon again, I am actually really looking forward to it. I wonder if I'll stick my foot in my mouth next summer.

After August... ??? I'm not quite sure. In 2010 I wanted to run three marathons, including one marathon at the end of the year but I wound up not doing the third one because I just didn't want to go full speed all year long. I might have the same feeling come late summer. I would like to run four marathons next year which would mean a fall/winter marathon but I don't want to put any extra undue pressure on myself right now.

Still, a possible full marathon option would be the Long Beach Marathon in early October. I'd like to run a race around here so I wouldn't have to travel, so that would fit the bill. But that would also mean little to no rest after San Francisco, so we'll see if I'm physically and/or mentally up for the challenge.

Well, there you have it. My 2011 race calendar, which is a work in progress. If that doesn't help kickstart me today, not sure what will.