So, my fall/winter race season is about to start, and I have to say...I'm more ready than I thought I would be.  I think it helps that we ended up signing up for so many running races that triathlon had to fall by the wayside and I got to concentrate on only one sport.  I got some cross training in with a little bit of swimming and spinning...but I haven't been out on my bike more than twice this year.  I'll definitely have to make up for that next year, if I want to finish the races I hope to.


So, the lineup of races for the rest of the year are

9/26-9/27 Ragnar Relay - In only 3 weeks, 5 other crazies and I will be running the 184ish miles from Cumberland, MD to DC.   We're one of the only 7 ultra teams (6 runners instead of the regular 12) and of those 7, only 3 of them are mixed sex....guaranteeing that we will at least get 3rd place! :)  I originally signed up for the hilly route, but ended up trading it with one of our runners who was waiting to see if he'd recovered fully from his injury earlier this year.  That means I somehow ended up with the easiest set of legs for the whole relay...only 27 miles total and mostly flat!  Sweeet!  Still, it means 3 legs of around 10 miles each, and about 5-6 hours of rest in between.  Luckily I'm really good at sleeping in cars, but that may change when I'm in a car with 3 other sweaty stinky runners and my legs are screaming at me 

10/11 Baltimore Half Marathon - Only 2 weeks after Ragnar, we signed up for the Baltimore Half....mostly because we LOVED the shirts (and our amazing time) from the relay last year.  This means we'll be taking it easy the weekend between these two races...and enjoying our time out in Baltimore.  We're even having a party while we're out there celbrating the end of the relay, at Bertha's Mussels in Fell's Point (since they're the major sponsor of our Ragnar team).  

11/9 Outer Banks (OBX) Marathon - Wow, renting a house in the outer banks in November is WAY cheaper than July :)  I'm excited about this one.  It's pretty much completely flat except for a large bridge around mile 20.  This will only be my second marathon ever, so I may have some trouble, but I wanted to get another one under my belt before....

1/10-1/11 Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge - Ah...the culmination of all this training.  Ok, so officially it's 2009 and not 2008, but it's the real reason we've signed up for the other 3 races.  We wanted to make sure we were truly trained for this experience.  Walt Disney's Donald Duck Half Marathon on Saturday and then the Mickey Mouse Marathon on Sunday.  We've already booked a 2-br Villa at the Old Key West resort, and we're planning on taking it super easy.  But even with taking it easy, this cannot be an easy race.  Based on Julia's advice, I will be carrying a camera and taking a bunch of pics and probably walking a lot and just trying to enjoy myself.  (That 20 mile training walk from earlier this year is looming, and freaking me out a bit)

In training for all of these races, I've ramped up my running miles by quite a bit.  You can see my recorded workouts here.  Like I mentioned before, I haven't been on my bike in forever, but I have been making it to spin classes at the gym every other week or so.  And I joined this amazing swim clinic at American University.  It was taught by the head coach of the AU swim team and a few of their alum/swimmers.  7 sessions for only $75 which included the pool access and an hour and a half of instruction during each session.  I already think I'm a better swimmer because of it, but now I have to put all I've learned into practice and get my yardage in. I tried a couple times in the last 2 weeks, but I have definitely lost all of my endurance with swimming.  I can barely swim 100 yards any more without stopping.

That's going to have to change because it looks like my goal race for next year will be the Longhorn Half IronMan in Austin, TX :)