Friday, October 24, 2014

The Super Secret List, Part II

Last week I shared my super meaningful race goals. Now it's time to shake things up with less meaning and more randomness. I'll try to explain them as best I can, but I honestly don't have good reasons for wanting to do most of these races. I just wanna. :)

Part II: Specific Races I Want to Do for Vague or Random Reasons

1. Baltimore Running Festival (Marathon, Half Marathon, Relay, 5K): I'm no fan of the city of Baltimore, especially since my experience in January. Still, I've heard great things about this event, and plus you get an Under Armour shirt. I'll probably do the 5K, though it would be cool to be part of a relay team.

2. Casey Cares Foundation & Orioles 5K: Though I don't care much for Baltimore in general, I do like the O's and I love Oriole Park at Camden Yards, so finishing a race there seems pretty awesome. Running + Baseball = Bliss!

3. Clyde's 10K: I've heard this race is worth running just for the food afterwards. I love food. Sold!

4. Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta (10K): I have no idea why I want to do this race. It's in July in Hotlanta. Gross. I think maybe it's stuck in my head because it's the second race I ever knew about when I was young. I think some of my siblings ran it once, or something. Anyway, I want to do it someday. I think.

5. Cherry Blossom 10 Miler: Now that I have run 7 miles, tacking on 3 more seems doable, with the proper amount of training, of course. I don't know of a lot of 10-mile races, but I've heard of this one and it seems pretty popular, so I might as well go for it someday.

6. Army 10 Miler: And this would be the only other 10-mile race I currently know of, so it might as well be on the list too.

7. Ragnar Relay (Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC): I know a few people who have done Ragnar relays, and they're absolutely INSANE! (The races, that is, not the people....though one could argue that someone would HAVE to be crazy to do one of these things!) You run with a team of 12 people, each taking 3 legs of a roughly 200-mile race, while the rest of the team follows along in a van. You even run overnight -- seriously, it's crazy. But it also sounds crazy FUN, if you do it with fun people, and that's exactly what I hope to do someday.

8. Columbia Triathlon (Olympic distance): Although I plan to stick with sprint distance races for next season at least, I do plan to move up eventually to Olympic distance triathlons, and it just seems natural that I should do this one. It's a challenging course, but some of it is the same as Iron Girl (same lake, same run course plus some extra). I don't know if this will end up being my first Oly distance race, but it's on the list.

9. Nation's Triathlon (Oly distance): Swimming in the Potomac sounds like a really bad idea and therefore I must do it.

10. NYC Triathlon (Oly distance): I watched this one on TV and decided that it looked fun.

11. Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon ("modified International distance"): This race is crazy, and hard, and also crazy hard. It might be many years before I'll be in good enough shape to complete it, and who knows how long before I'd get lucky enough to win a spot through the lottery. I don't really know why I want to do it, other than just being drawn to insanity. It's like this: once you embrace the insanity of triathlon itself, suddenly all kinds of things that normal people deem "crazy" seem perfectly normal and in fact desirable. So, I want to do this crazy hard thing. Lord help me.

If you've done one of these races and have any helpful advice for me, please share it! If you'd like to join me on one or more of these, please share that too! If you just think I'm completely nuts at this point...well, you're welcome to share that also, but it's not like you're telling me something I don't already know. ;-)

And if you thought this list was random, just wait until you see Part III...

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