Fall 2015 & Spring 2016 races
I’ve never done a race schedule timeline, so bare with me here.
My preference with races is to sign up a few weeks before. That way I can safeguard against having to DNS because of injury, and it takes the mental pressure off.
But with becoming more half & full marathon centric recently, and with the likelihood to revolve a race around a vacation with marathons, I’ve needed to reluctantly do some planning.
I’ve now missed out on CIM registration, and chances are I won’t fly back to the east coast for Philly, or any others I was eying off there. So no marathon until next year.
I have a bunch of races scattered around in my Calendar app. I’m not planning on doing all of them though, there’s a lot of backups I’ve taken noted of. So here’s a summary of the plan A path...
10k - Eastside 10k, Vancouver, BC.
It’s been 2 months since my last 10k where I broke a 3 year PR drought. The positives about this one is that it’s cooler now, but the negative is that it’s hilly. If I have any chance of PR’ing here, I’ll have to break the mould out of my progressive race strategy that I’ve defaulted to lately, and use those hills to my advantage (i.e., conserve on the uphill, and tear it up on the downhill).
5k - MEC Tape Breaker, Richmond, BC.
Half Marathon / 5k - Spirit Half, North Vancouver, BC.
I’d love to do this half marathon, I love the route, and I’d love to do one early in the fall in addition to a late one. But if I don’t want an interruption to my training this early (taper & recovery weeks) then I may opt to do the 5k instead.
8k - Victoria Marathon Weekend, Victoria, BC.
We’re going over there for fuelingforfitness‘s fall marathon. But this nice little 8k starts and finishes before the marathon even starts.
5k - Boundary Bay Half & 5k, BC.
November is shaping up to be 5k season. I have to break the 10 year PR somewhere in here! This is on a gravel trail, so I’m going to be wearing my low drop trail shoes, and will only taper for it in a minor way (seeing as there’s not much of a chance of PR’ing)
5k - Fall Classic, UBC, BC.
This isn’t the flattest course, but the hills aren’t that steep. It’s more like one or two gradual gradients. If I set a PR the week before I won’t even care though. I’ll also just taper for this in a minor way.
5k - Moustache Miler, Vancouver, BC.
A 5k in celebration of moustache growth. What’s not to love? If I haven’t gotten a PR before here, I’ll probably even taper in the week leading up to this one. Besides, I’ll be tapering more substantially here and toning down the mileage in the lead up to the half marathon the next week anyway.
Half Marathon / 5k - Historic Half, Vancouver, BC.
If I end up running the Spirit half on Oct 4 and commit to the Dec 13 Portland half, I’ll run the 5k here instead.
5k - IDF Run, Vancouver, BC.
At this point of the year I’ll be looking to solidify a PR in the 5k if I haven’t already. This one will be too soon to race hard if I do the half marathon the weekend before, so maybe it’s a no go. There’s a drought of 5k’s in December though, so I might have to look for one just across the border in Washington.
Half Marathon / 5k - Holiday Half Marathon, Portland, ON.
Yep, if I don’t race the half on Nov 29, I’ll do this one. Otherwise I might still travel down for the 5k and make a weekender out of it, because Alison and I want an excuse to check out Portland for the first time.
ariavie swears by the cooler temperatures in northern California redwoods territory. This might be my first marathon in that general area. But the way things are shaping out now, I might not even tweak my training to more marathon / tempo work until January anyway. But I’ll still add this to the list for 2017 or later.
Half Marathon - First HM, Vancouver, BC.
The training focus will be firmly in marathon mode here, and I’ll run this race as a tune up. Mid-Feb still allows plenty of time for recovery and another small build up before an April/May marathon.
Marathon - Bloom To Brews, Horseshoe Lake, WA.
It may not have a huge crowd support, but I’ve never been one for needing to feed off the energy of crowds. It ticks more important boxes for me, flat and cool. Scenic would be an added bonus.
I would only do this if I don’t make it to the above marathon or have to - God forbid - pull out. Eugene is my back up. Lessons learned from last time: always have a back up.
