2009

Inspired by Alyssa, who posted her projected 2009 racing schedule, I am going to put into writing my preliminary schedule. While 2008 is not quite over, the demands of our sport necessitate us to plan far into the future. Anything marked with an * denotes a definite.

1/25: ING Miami Half Marathon*
2/7: USATF Cross Country National Championships*
2/21: Club Challenge 10 Mile*
3/15: Shamrock 5k
4/20: Boston Marathon*
5/10: Kinetic Sprint Triathlon
5/17: Columbia Triathlon*
6/14: Eagleman*

The plan is then to chill out the remainder of June and start rebuilding for the fall.

7/26: New Jersey State Triathlon*
8/30: Ironman Louisville
9/20: Philly Distance Run*
10/11: Chicago Marathon
11/1: New York City Marathon*
11/22: Ironman Arizona*

Obviously I will not do two Ironmans and two additional marathons, but it'll be probably one of each. Louisville is not my first choice, nor is Arizona, but they seem to be the only ones left open in the US. Chicago Marathon is the same weekend as Baltimore, but they'll be split up again in 2010. New York didn't go great this year, and Justin plans on doing it (since he registered this year but broke his ankle) so I think I might like another go at it. Plus, New York would be a good race to do a few weeks out from the IM. We'll see what happens.

Since posting this I have decided that I will do Ironman Arizona because Mike Zero and Larry Rutledge are committed to this one as well. Since Justin is looking to do NYC Marathon next year, and it would be a good run a few weeks out from the Ironman, I'll commit to that as well.

All I know is that I need to race a lot less, because the distances are going up which means so are the stakes. If you have a bad day in an IM, you don't go out the next weekend and make up for it. I want to cut out some of the shorter races, the back to back to back weekends, and unnecessary summer racing. I'm at 24 races this year, probably finishing at 28. I need to cut that down big time next year.