Committed

Today I realized I am one of those people we call a special kind of crazy. I am knee deep in ½ marathon thinking-land and it occurred to me that for as much thought as I’ve been giving to the half marathon that I have only honestly ran 3 of them in my life all of which are in the past 4 months. And somehow I want to run an additional 13 of them. This is where that special kind of crazy comes into play. Today I officially registered for an additional 6 races. Yeah, I know I’m that kind of crazy. It is the part of my brain that makes me successful, obsessive and, and terrified all at the same time. Most people might casually go into the running world, I just full force off the high board into a giant freaking pool. If I can run one half marathon than certainly 14 of them in a year has got to be better, right? Where do I come up with this shit? And what on earth possesses me to persue such crazy goals. Sometimes I wonder what my mind is thinking.

Today I purchased the Rock and Roll 3 pack and officially registered for San Francisco, and Seattle. I have previously registered for the Portland race when it was on a special in December. I have one more spot on my 3 pack which is reserved for Vegas. You cannot register yet for Vegas or else I would have. But it’s paid for and that is the good thing.

I also went ahead and registered for 3 other races this morning. The first 1 is the Hazel Dell Half on February 23 which benefits Panda Paws Pet Rescue. I kind of fell in love immediately with this race for the simple fact that it’s in partnership with this organization that could not be nearer or dearer to my heart. They rehabilitate special needs animals. Um… the fact that there are people in this world willing to spend time money and energy on caring for animals in this capacity makes my heart dance. I am 10000% an animal activist. There is not a single cause I deem more worthy than animal rescue. They did not ask to be brought into this world, (yes children don’t either) but animals will never have a voice and will never be considered as important as humans and therefore do not have the same rights. It is heart breaking to me. I don’t want to go get on my animal soapbox because the love of a dog is like the most freaking amazing thing in the world to me. End of story. This race is registered for and that is the point. Oh, and somebody kind of is speaking my language on this one because at the end of the race you get a red velvet cupcake. We all know I might be a huge cupcake whore. Will run for cupcakes! See the race here: https://www.facebook.com/?q=#/pages/Hazel-Dell-Half-Marathon-8k-2014/319290731419459?ref=br_tf

I then registered for the Easter Hop Hop Race on April 19. This race ends with them handing you a mimosa. I was pretty much sold at the instant I read that. They are speaking straight to my heart. I adore mimosa’s. The medal is cool too, and we all know it’s about the hardware for me. It is an Easter egg shaped medal. Perfection. See the race here: http://hophophalf.com/

And finally I went ahead and registered for the 4th of July run because today was the last day before a price increase and since I pretty much knew I was going to do this one I thought why not. See the race here: http://www.foottraffic.us/flat/

So all in all this means at this point in time I am now officially registered for these races on my quest to 14 in 14.

January 2014: Rock and Roll Arizona (completed)
February 1, 2014: Scio Half (this is tomorrow, oh boy!)
February 23, 2014: Hazel Dell Half
April 6, 2014: Rock and Roll San Francisco
April 19, 2014: Hop Hop Half
May 18, 2014: Rock and Roll Portland
June 21, 2014: Rock and Roll Seattle
July 4, 2014: Foot Traffic Flat
November 16, 2014: Rock and Roll Las Vegas (paid for, can’t officially register until March)

This is 9 of my 14 planned runs. I have a few more penciled in on the calendar that I have not registered for but intend to probably next month after another round of payday. This shit gets expensive my friends. I have 3 more that I am certain I want to do and will register for and that leaves 2 open slots to play with. There are a lot of races on the calendar I could do but we will have to wait and see. I am not ruling out the possibility of another Rock and Roll destination run later in the year, but that will depend on finances and location and a lot of factors that I cannot predict at this point. We shall see. I am enjoying the destination running so I wouldn’t rule out the idea that I want to go somewhere to run. At this point my 3 officially completed races have been in 3 different states. That will change tomorrow when I run my second one in Oregon which makes sense considering I freaking live here. Nonetheless, right now I have done 3 in 3 different locations. That’s kind of cool too.

So you see, when I make a decision I just go for it. Who decides one day to do something and literally less than 2 weeks later has 9 races on the books officially. This crazy crazy girl! I printed out a year calendar and marked all the possible races on it. So that I can see the year in running at a glance and see how closely they line up. It is my goal to never run them on back to back weekends. I would really like to have at least one weekend in between to recover. Some of them are close but there is thus far at least that all important weekend in between.

I am such an all or nothing kind of girl. I guess my brain sees little point in running a few here and there unless I’m going for the gusto and I’m going to fully commit to achieving an awesome goal. Clearly running Disney is not happening this year. Do you know how ridiculously expensive it is to Run Disney? Crazy expensive. It is still a goal, and I am also certain that someday I am going to run thru Disneyland. It WILL happen. It is on my bucket list, but just not this year. This year I tackle my 14 in 14 and then perhaps the following year when I can ease up on the excessive running I can consider investing my money into a few more important runs. Quality instead of quantity. This year it’s about quantity. Of course I really am in love with my Rock and roll runs; I think they are amazing quality as well. In fact, I adore them so much I am terrified to run other races because I know they won’t be of the same quality.

This one I am running tomorrow is REALLY small. I am kind of scared of the size and quality of it to be honest. But we signed up on a whim basically just to get another one on the books. I read in one location that you get a finisher’s medal but I haven’t heard much about it and I haven’t seen anything so I’m guessing it’s just some cheesy thing but it doesn’t really matter as long as I finish and getting a little something, anything would be nice for my efforts.

That’s about it for today. Think of me tomorrow morning early in the freezing cold completing my second of 14 half’s this year. This one is going to get interesting….