Disney World Half Marathon–Before the Race

Boy oh boy, Disney races start so early…  The half marathon was going to start around 5:35 I believe and they wanted you through bag check by 4:30.  Craziness!  I figured if we left the hotel at 3:50 I would be at bag check soon after 4 am, I could meet some blog buddies and then be in my corral in time for the start.

Um…yeah…that is not what happened.

We turned out of our hotel and made out way to the main highway to get to Epcot.  We ran into the most insane traffic I have ever seen.  We were barely moving.  I watched the clock tick.

4:30 came and went and I knew my blog buddies were now making their way to the start.  We were still really far away.  Inch, inch, inch towards Epcot.  Finally at about 5:15 we were on the edge of the parking lot.  Dad slowed to a stop and I jumped out of the car.  I left my sweats in the car, raced through bag check and hit the porta potties on the other side.  While I was in there the announcer was frantically telling us to get to the start as the race was about to start.  And oh yeah, I was supposed to be in the second wave so I was pretty sure I’d miss that opportunity.

From the porta potties I raced the long way to the start.  I found the final corral but I wanted to see how far up I could get.  The fireworks went off signalling the start for the first wave.  Crap!  I managed to make my way near the front and spied the B Corral.  I was able to make my way through to the back of the corral just a moment before we were supposed to start.

Alright, time to run a race I hadn’t really trained for…

By the way, I’m not sure if there were too many people on the road or what was going on, but I was quite disappointed that traffic control was not in place to help move traffic into Epcot before the start.  It shouldn’t have taken us over an hour to drive what normally takes less than 10 minutes.  My one gripe from the weekend.

Buzz & Woody’s Best Friends 5K

The alarm clock went off bright and early at 5 am on Friday morning.  It felt pretty chilly outside (even for this Albertan), so I dressed in capri tights, a long sleeve top and a midweight base layer.  My plan was to leave my top at the bag check, but the bag check was right after you got out of your car.  I wasn’t quite ready to give it up yet so I decided to race with it.  I hit the porta potties, started taking a couple of pictures, and then the announcer told us to start making our way into the corrals.

The corrals were crazy busy!  At first there was no getting in a corral as they were just too full.  Finally a barricade near the front was removed, a few people moved up and I was able to make my way in.  Yes, I was still cold…As the race drew closer Buzz and Woody came over to the start to cheer us on.  Then at 7 am we were off!  The course was so crowded to begin with.  This was a non-timed fun run, but you were asked to line up by pace.  A bunch of walkers set themselves up near the front of the race causing quite a bit of congestion for the runners around us that wanted to get by them.

We started through the parking lot and back lots of Epcot, then made our way into the park right by the Mexican pavilion.  There were several characters out along the way.  I saw Mulan in China and Minnie was waving to us from the Japanese pavilion.  My dad spotted Chip & Dale there when he went by.  When I saw Remy in France I had to stop for a quick picture.  I absolutely love running around World Showcase in Epcot so this was a pretty fun 5K for me.  Finally it was back towards Spaceship Earth, then out of the park, into the parking lot and on to the finish line.  I crossed the line in 35:47.  I got my first medal of the weekend and then waited for my mom and dad to cross the finish line.Once the race was done we figured we’d get an early jump start on the parks and head to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  We wanted to ride Toy Story Midway Mania before it got too busy.  Yes, I was that cold that I was wearing the many clothes while standing in line!  After two rides on the midway and a turn on Aerosmith’s Rock n Roller Coaster we had done everything at the park we were keen on.  We left for a quick lunch of fish and chips at Raglan Road, then back to the hotel where I wound up conking out for a 2 or 3 hour nap on the couch.  Half marathon tomorrow!!

WDW Marathon Race Report

*Warning - this is a long one!*

The Plan

While I was stuck in Kelowna on my unplanned "snow day" I spent a big chunk of the afternoon working on my marathon race plan. I had a loose goal in my head of a 4:30 marathon, mostly because the McMillan Running Calculator said it should be doable based off of my Last Chance Half marathon time. I knew the conditions were going to have to be pretty optimal to try and hit that goal, so while it was in the back of my mind, I wasn't basing my success in the race off of whether I'd be able to hit it or not. In terms of strategy to reach said goal? I didn't want to start off too fast and then risk blowing up later, but I also didn't want to start off to slow and have a tough time catching up. So the plan was to:

• Run the first 10 miles at a 10:20/mi pace, heart rate sub-160.
• Hold the pace over the next 10 miles, or if possible speed up to a 10:10/mi pace. Heart rate can build to 165.
• Over the final 6.2 miles hold 10:10/mi, or speed up if at all possible. Heart rate can inch over 165.
  

Before the Race

I was in bed and asleep at 9:00 on Saturday night, and awake right at 2:30 am on Sunday. I felt pretty well rested and ready to go. I showered, got my breakfast ready and headed out the door. My mom was participating in the marathon as well and my dad was our chauffeur/cheerleader/race photographer. He drove us to the start and I chowed down on my oatmeal in the car. Once we pulled in to the Epcot parking lot I said my goodbyes and good lucks to my mom and headed off towards the tents. If you haven't run Disney before, you congregate in the Epcot parking lot for porta-potties, entertainment and bag check, but then walk a fair ways to the actual start line from there. As I was walking through the parking lot I noticed a familiar head of hair emerging from one of the cars. - Maddy! Not bad considering I wasn't wearing my glasses! I hung out with Maddy and her friends at the start for a bit (and got to meet Marathon Chris) and then it seemed like it was time to head towards the start line.

Except Claire and Cranky weren't there yet. I had promised to wait for them at the start so I wished everyone well, then found a quiet spot to sit down. I still had a pretty good amount of time before the race was supposed to start and the porta-potty lines were insane, so I figured if I waited for them (and until things thinned out a bit) I might be in better luck. As I sat there I turned on my iPod (the only time I ever had an intention of wearing it) and just tried to get my head in the right space for the race. I was feeling nervous, but having the quiet time on my own really helped a lot. Finally Angry, Claire, Cranky and I all congregated, grabbed a quick picture, then made our way towards the start. We were all in different corrals and by the time I made it down to my corral the race was about ready to go. Since it had been cool out I wore my NKOTB sweatshirt and felt a bit sad as I donated it to one of the clothing bins. I wanted to hit the porta-potties again but didn't think I'd have time. A few people were rushing and trying to jump the fencing to get into the corral and I saw one fellow who didn't jump very well and got a bit stuck half way over. Not a good way to start the race I'm sure...

The Race - The First 10 Miles

The marathon has two different starts just to help with congestion on the course. I was at the back of the blue start since my predicted finishing time was 4:30 or less. Everyone over that was over on the red start and the courses would converge just after 3 miles in. They sang the national anthem and I started to get a bit teary eyed. I know, it wasn't my national anthem, but it still made me feel pretty emotional! Fireworks went off right overhead at the start of the race. Pretty spectacular stuff!

I decided to wear a Canada shirt for the race because last year I had noticed that a bunch of folks got huge "Go Canada!" cheers with their patriotic shirts. I figured it would be a lot easier for people to shout "Go Canada!" at me rather than trying to read my name on my bib and shout it out and I figured I could use the enthusiasm. I saw tons of other people with the same idea and if at all possible I tried to run with them a bit to ask where they were from.

The race started off on the highway and we headed towards Epcot. My dad was on the side of the highway and even though he let me know exactly where he was I couldn't spot him. I tried to be mindful of my pace right off the bat, but as soon as I started running the humidity smacked me in the face. I was definitely not used to that. I aimed to keep a 10:30/mi pace if possible since 10:20 seemed a bit optimistic.

We entered Epcot for the first time around mile 2. This is one of the highlights of the race since it is dark and the park is empty save for your fellow runners and the wonderful cast members who are out and cheering you on. As you run around World Showcase the lights are flashing and music is pumping. As I ran past Morocco I decided to take advantage of the bathrooms since I had missed the porta-potties at the start line. My heart rate was at 164 already by mile 2. Definitely higher than I expected it to be, but I thought it might be nerves and might adjust. So I just went with it...

Once the two courses converged things got a bit congested. There were so many people running around the same pace as me and we hadn't had enough time to quite spread out yet. Once we exited Epcot it felt like things were so crowded until we hit the main parking entrance for the Magic Kingdom. We'd be running on a single lane on-ramp or off-ramp and it felt like it would take too much energy to try and get past everyone. My pace crept up over those first 6 miles and once things opened up after that I knew I'd need to speed up a bit if I was going to try to keep a 10:30 pace. I must have weaved around a fair bit because each mile marker started to get further and further off... Before I knew it we were at the Transportation and Ticket Centre which is a huge spot for people to cheer you on at. You get so much energy running through here that it starts to get you excited for Magic Kingdom around the corner. I even managed to catch my friend Anne here and she gave me a huge cheer. Once I left TTC I tried to give my dad a call to let him know I was almost at the Magic Kingdom, but no luck, he couldn't hear his phone ring.

I ran up to a lady that was wearing a Vancouver Half Marathon shirt to find out where she was from. She was not overly chatty, it looked like she was hurting pretty badly already. Yikes.

I crossed the 10 mile timing mat at 1:46:42 (10:40/mi), although Garmin clicked off 10 miles at 1:44:43 (10:28/mi). By this point in time my heart rate had climbed to 175. It would stay in the 170s (or higher) for the rest of the race.

Miles 10 Through 20

As soon as you run into Magic Kingdom it hits you - the crowds cheering you on are huge, music is pumping and your adrenalin is just flowing. Even though my dad couldn't hear my phone call he had a good idea of when I should be arriving and we managed to spot each other on Main Street. From there you run into Tomorrowland and the characters are out in case you want to stop for pictures with them. Last year I stopped for a picture with almost every single character. This year I just wanted to run, so even though I had my camera with me I didn't stop for a single picture throughout the race. I just hoped that the race photographers would be able to catch a few good shots of me instead!

We wound through Fantasyland and through Cinderella's Castle. It can get a bit hairy here as people elbow you and cut in front of you to try and get the perfect picture of themselves running through the castle. This year you could run down the ramp out of the castle, then go stand in line at the bottom of the castle to have your picture captured by a photographer waiting down there. You can see a few folks behind the yellow cones in the picture below heading off to do just that.
From here you run through Frontierland, through the backstage, and then you are out on the road for several miles from here on out. There was a water stop just before leaving the Magic Kingdom and I walked and pulled a gu out from my waist pack. I somehow must have hit my Garmin when I did this and it took me a good 8 minutes to realize what I'd done. At the time I didn't know how off my Garmin was, especially since I had done enough weaving on the course to have accrued and extra quarter of a mile at least by this point in time. I also didn't know when I'd crossed the start line so I felt a bit in the dark about where I was at time-wise from here on out. Oops.

Once I left MK I gave Angry a call since he planned to be waiting for me to run past the Polynesian resort. We spotted each other and he asked how I was feeling. I gave him a big smile and told him I felt great. And really, I felt just about as fresh as a daisy at this point in time. There is something about this marathon course that causes a bit of unraveling once you cross the half way point though. Last year in the Goofy this was where I knew I would pretty well be walking the rest of the way if I wanted to finish. This year that was about when the sun came out and started to heat things up. Well, at least they heated up for this girl from up north. With no real reprieve from the sun things got a bit tougher. You exit MK at mile 11 and don't hit another park - Animal Kingdom - until after mile 16 so it feels like you are running on boring roads for a long time. Everyone gets significantly quieter through this stretch. I also got a bit nervous as I approached Animal Kingdom since this was around the distance when things started to go wrong for me at Quebec. Despite the heat and the slight amount of slowing down that I was doing, things were feeling pretty good still.

You don't have quite the same amount of buzz or get the boost from running through Animal Kingdom that you do running through MK. The only way to get to the park is by car so it isn't quite a popular option for spectators. As I was running through the park it hadn't opened yet. In some ways it was kind of neat to be running through the fairly empty park. The shot below if from mile 17, and I'm pretty happy that it looks like I'm running properly and not doing the marathon shuffle just yet!At mile 18 I exited Animal Kingdom and it was straight highway until sometime after mile 22. I was still feeling the heat and was just sweating buckets. After my hydration disaster at Quebec City I decided to carry my own fluids with me. In Quebec my strategy was to drink one cup of water and once cup of Gatorade at every aid station. The cups of water were so much bigger that I definitely got way too much water and was lacking electrolytes. I wanted to be more in control on this race, so I loaded my Camelbak up with about 1 L of nuun. This way I avoided the water and drank when I wanted to. The 1 L wasn't enough to last me the whole race, but I think this strategy worked out really well.
I crossed the 20 mile marker at 3:33:18 (10:40/mi). Hey, those are pretty even splits!

Miles 20 through 26.2

I did make an attempt to speed up a bit after crossing 20 miles, but it didn't last for very long. Ultimately I was happy if I could keep the same pace or not slow down too much. In comparison I felt infinitely better than I did at this point in my last two marathons. I never hit a mental or a physical wall, I was just slowly tiring. You enter Hollywood Studios just after mile 22 and from here on out you are off the highways. We passed through a chocolate stop just before mile 23 and I grabbed a small Hershey's bar to save for later. Except it kind of melted and turned a bit gross. Oops. We ran out of Hollywood Studios and down on to the Boardwalk towards Epcot. Even though I was tired I was passing people all over the place. That was a huge boost! Then just as I entered Epcot there were a couple of guys from the Canadian pavilion cheering us on. When they saw my Canada shirt I got huge cheers from them, which was awesome. Then it was around World Showcase for one last time, past Spaceship Earth and on to the finish line. I even had a little kick left in me for the run to this finish line. I was pretty sure I was going to have some ugly finish line shots as I was really gutting it out, but I guess the camera guy snapped at the right moment...!
When I finished I really had no idea how I did. I just had a general window that I knew I fit between - somewhere between 4:36 and 4:50. I was hoping I had made it in under 4:45, but ultimately I was just really happy with how I ran the race since it was such a drastic improvement over the last two. After all, I really ran this one, which was my goal all along. When I got back to the hotel my results were up though (and have since been adjusted by a second):

4:44:51 (10:52/mi)
Overall Place: 5501/14953
Gender Place: 1909/7144
Division Place: 329/1167

Post Race Thoughts

I estimate that I probably ran nearly an extra mile just with weaving around the course. After all, even though my Garmin was stopped for a full 8 minutes I still measured 25.83 miles, which would mean my average pace was closer to 10:30/mi. I could analyze my pace graph until the cows come home - should I have walked more in the beginning and would that have saved me from slowing down in the end? Or did I take advantage of the cooler temperatures and would slowing down have been inevitable once the sun came out?

The bigger question for me is, is my heart rate accurate during this race? Was I really red lining it for 2-1/2 hours? Or was my reading just messed up? When I did my VO2 max test back in September I conked out at 181 bpm. It is hard to believe that these numbers are accurate, but...who knows?
Anyhow, at the end of the day I'm really proud of the race I ran. I had a good time out on the course and I believe I ran a good race for the day. After walking most of the marathon last year I really wanted to come back and properly run this course. Mission accomplished, and a big PR achieved in the mean time!

WDW Marathon Results

It's official. I'm done. And incredibly stiff and sore. There will be no more fast moving for me today. The race didn't quite go according to plan, but I felt pretty good running the entire time and definitely didn't blow up. I just slowed down towards the end, but I kept running. Definitely a different story from last year's Disney Marathon or Quebec City.

So here are the details. I know I ran more than the 26.2 miles (unfortunately not how much more since I accidentally turned my Garmin off for around 8 minutes), so the paces are a little pessimistic.

Final Time: 4:44:50 (10:52/mi)

5 mi: 54:30 (10:54/mi)
10 mi: 1:46:42 (10:40/mi)
13.1 mi: 2:18:29 (10:34/mi)
20 mi: 3:33:17 (10:40/mi)

At any rate, that is a solid PR by 26:13. One other thing of interesting note? My average heart rate was 173 bpm. That is the top of Zone 4 for me, but we can talk about that later. More details to follow!

Getting to Orlando...and pre-race stuff

Luxury!

I worked until noon on Thursday, then went off to my usual spa for a heavenly 1.5 hour massage. No deep tissue work but it helped to work a few kinks out of my muscles. It was a great way to start my vacation! Just as I was leaving the spa snow started flying. Quite a bit of snow. I started having visions of delayed planes, but when I checked my flight status everything was looking okay. I finished my packing, loaded up the car and took off. I managed to score two of my flights in executive class, including my outbound flight from Calgary. It was so nice to settle in to a roomy seat and dinner on the plane wasn't half bad either.
"You know there is a free shuttle, right?"

We landed in Montreal just before midnight. My flight didn't leave until 8:30 am on Friday so I'd booked a hotel near the airport that was supposed to have a free 24 hour shuttle. After I picked up my bags I called the hotel to find out about getting a shuttle pick up, but there was no answer. I didn't want to wait around for a shuttle that might not come, especially since it was now well after midnight and I needed to be back at the airport at 6:30 am. I figured I'd just hop in a cab since the hotel wasn't too far. Once I told the cab driver where I was off to, his first response was, "You know there is a free shuttle, right?" Yes...but I didn't want to wait around for it. We drove to the hotel and 5 minutes later we arrived. I asked how much it was, and the response? $20! I guess there is a minimum $17 charge leaving the airport... I checked in and asked what time I'd need to be down in the lobby to catch the shuttle in the morning. 6:25 am.

In the morning I hurried to get ready and just as I was rolling into the lobby I saw the shuttle pull away. Bugger... I couldn't wait half an hour for the shuttle to come back so I asked if the hotel could call me a taxi. In a few minutes the taxi was there and the driver asked where we were going. "To the airport please." His response? "You know there is a free shuttle from the hotel, right?"

Luxury, Part II

I got into the check in line and there were a couple of ladies in front of me with their Boston Marathon and running club jackets on. We started chatting and they were flying down for the Goofy Challenge. There were Boston Marathon jackets everywhere in the check in line. My ticket was in economy for the flight from Montreal to Orlando, but I asked for a bump up if possible when I checked in. The bump came through, so it was a nice flight down to Orlando as well.

Burrito Bowls and the Expo

First things first, upon arrival in Orlando it was time to eat. I had been having a craving for a burrito bowl from Chipotle for awhile. My parents were kind enough to indulge me in my fast food craving. It was so tasty... From there we went to the expo right away. Number pick up was super fast as it wasn't too busy, but it was pretty busy around the vendors. The marathon logo merchandise wasn't too exciting, but I did manage to find a jacket that I liked. Probably the best deal at the expo was the 15% off of everything that Track Shack was offering. I managed to pick up a new pair of Asics Kayano 15s for a half decent price. I also managed to meet up with Angry, Claire and Cranky at the expo. I've been reading Claire and Cranky's blogs for ages and it was great to finally meet them in person.

And Other Thoughts

I went out for a quick 2 miler today, just to loosen up my legs and work some nerves out. It is definitely more humid here than I'm used to, and it looks like it is going to be somewhat warm tomorrow. We'll see how the weather plays out in the race tomorrow, but regardless, I'm feeling ready! Today I just have to work hard on relaxing and staying off of my feet.

Thanks for all of your well wishes! I'll be sure to check in and let you know how it goes.

Finding Out My Max

So really not a whole lot to report from the camp of Runner Leana. I swam Thursday morning and there wasn't anything really noteworthy about it. This weekend I'm running and biking, but both workouts are short and high intensity. After that, the hard work preparing for the WDW Marathon starts. This is definitely going to be the most intensely I will have trained for a marathon, including when I was training for the Goofy Challenge last year! My running days will increase from three to four (although the fourth run will be optional), I'll be dialing back the strength training slightly, but I'll be adding in a few more spins on the bike (like some short recovery stuff after a long run on Saturday), and I'll be moving from hill training to speed work. I think I'm up for the challenge! I'm not sure when the mental shift happened for me - that racing wasn't going to be just about finishing, but on improvement and goal setting. It is definitely going to make for some interesting times ahead!

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So where is all this high intensity stuff coming from? You may have noticed that I've started paying attention to my heart rate during workouts. My mom had a Garmin 305 and since she wasn't using her heart rate monitor I swapped my 205 with her so I could start keeping track. When I started with coach we talked about me going for VO2 Max testing, just so I could see where my strengths were and where I needed to improve. Since I'm an engineer I find the science behind sport and performance pretty interesting stuff, so I was game to see where I was at. If you haven't had your VO2 Max tested, you put a mask on so that what you exhale can be analyzed to determine how the chemical composition changes as you start to work harder. You strap a heart rate monitor on as well. My test was done on a treadmill. The speed was kept constant at a 10:00/mi pace, but every minute the incline was increased by 2%. You kept running until you just couldn't do it anymore. I think the test typically lasts anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes for most people.

What I wound up finding out is that I am super efficient at low heart rate, low intensity stuff. As soon as it gets to the point where I need to push myself in the anaerobic zone things fall apart as I have pretty little capacity there (you can see my zone 1 and 2 are pretty large, but 3 and 4 are pretty thin). So running a long time at a really slow pace isn't going to help me anymore. If I want to improve I need to push things into the uncomfortable zone and that is where I have the most gains to make. So that explains some of the shift in my training!

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And oh yeah...it was time to say bye-bye to blonde again and I'm officially back to brunette. No photographic evidence yet though!

Organizing Travel Plans

I've been busy these last few days trying to make some travel arrangements for my upcoming races. I have:

1. Booked my flights to Orlando for the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. I wanted to fly on points so the options weren't terrific, but I at least get two out of four legs in business class for the same number of points as most economy tickets.
2. Booked my hotel in Montreal for when I have to overnight there on my way from Calgary to Orlando.
3. Booked my hotel in Stony Plain for the weekend of the Great White North Triathlon.
4. Investigated hotels for the other 70.3 race I want to do, but still have yet to sign up for.

I may have almost waited too long to book my hotel in Stony Plain. There are only three hotels in Stony Plain and most rooms are sold out, and the few that are available are smoking rooms. I managed to get a two queen bed room with a kitchenette, non-smoking, which is more room than I need, but I figure that is okay. The kitchenette may come in handy to prepare a few meals of my own and not worry about restaurant food causing an issue with my stomach on race day.

As for this weekend, I have a 22 km (13.5 mi) run on tap, along with a 1 to 1-1/2 hour bike ride. The weather is supposed to be amazing today so I may aim to do one of those things today and take Sunday as a rest day. We'll see...

WDW Marathon - to register soon or not?

Sigh, Disney is just itching to get my money as quickly as possible. I was hoping to hold off on registering for the 2009 marathon until they started posting capacity updates thanks to:

• My trip to Australia and Disney World...
• Spending $80 to order the full marathon official race photos (it was my first marathon, I thought I should)...
• All of the races I have already registered for...
• The purchase of a plane ticket or two...
• And the fact that I'm off to Lost Wages, aka Las Vegas, this weekend...

However the registration fee goes up from $110 to $125 on March 1st so I better get off my duff and commit my Canadian pesos to the race. Also, for anyone thinking of racing Disney next year apparently the half and full marathon medals are being redesigned. Sigh, I am such a sucker for the bling!

A busy week

Four days off at home was all I was able to handle, but the good news is I do feel better. I managed to keep myself pretty busy while I was at home. I:

• Watched the Wedding Date.
• Watched the first DVD for Pride and Prejudice.
• Watched Catch and Release.
• Watched a lot of the Food Network.
• Watched a lot of Friends. In Calgary you can watch Friends from 6 pm through to at least 9 pm, and sometimes through till 10 pm on weeknights.
• Deconstructed the January through September 2006 issues of Food and Wine magazine and filed all of the recipes and wine reviews into a binder.
• Broke my programmable thermostat when I got up from my couch that has a ridiculous static charge on it (that's what you get when you live in such a dry climate) and attempted to change the temperature on the thermostat. I zapped it when I touched it, the screen went blank, came back on and was unresponsive.
• Replaced the broken programmable thermostat.
• Estimated the cost to replace the carpet in my living room with laminate flooring.
• Made Asian Chicken Noodle soup and Split Pea soup.
• Planned the themed food with my big bro for the Superbowl Party this weekend. New York, New England and Arizona will all be represented well.
• Spent some air miles to book a flight to Orlando for the Minnie Marathon.
• Saw Atonement, an absolutely amazing movie.
• Put my training schedule for the entire year into an Excel spreadsheet. Training for the Minnie starts Feb 11 and as soon as that is done I start training for Quebec City. After Quebec I get two weeks off and then I start training for the Mickey. It is going to be a busy year, but thanks to Hal Higdon I know what direction I'm going in.

Goals and goal races for 2008 and beyond...

In an attempt to avoid the post-marathon slump I'm determined to keep looking forward. I have a few goals I would like to aim for over the next 12 months:

1. Run a sub-60:00 10K in Alberta. I managed one near sea level in Seattle, now I want to know that I can do it at altitude.
2. Run a sub-30:00 5K. First I have to find a 5K to race though. Most of them around here seem to conflict with other races I want to do.
3. Keep my fitness level at the point where I could run a half marathon at the drop of a hat. It might not be easy, or it might not be a PR, but this is what I'm hoping for. I figure if I aim to average 20 miles/week unless I'm specifically training for something, then this should be doable. Don't worry, I'm giving myself some time off before I start in on this 20 miles/week plan though.
4. Keep some variety in my workouts. I'm sticking with Fit Ball over the winter, then it is back to Bikini Boot Camp in the spring. I'll be looking out for the unlimited pass to the yoga studio this summer again too.

As for goal races, here is what I have on my radar:

1. St. Patrick's Day 10K Road Race in Calgary on March 16th. This race marks the full circle of my racing year, plus the post race stew is terrific.
2. Vancouver Sun Run on April 20th (10K). This was my first ever race and I love running Vancouver, plus it is the second largest 10K in all of North America.
3. Minnie Marathon Weekend May 3-4 at Walt Disney World. I'll be running the 5K and the 15K again this year. This is rumoured to be the final ever Minnie Marathon, so this is your last chance for a Minnie medal. I need mine to go with my Donald, Mickey and Goofy medals from this year.
4. Footstock Half Marathon in Cochrane on June 14th. I ran the 10K there last year, but this time I'm going back for the half. You get a nice tech shirt and a nifty medal at this one, plus I love the post race pancake breakfast.
5. If I find a great airfare deal I may want to run the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon on June 22. But we'll see about that...
6. Marathon Des Deux Rives in Quebec City on August 24th. I really want to see more of eastern Canada and Quebec is top of my list. I hear this is an amazingly well organized race that is very scenic. I'm leaning towards the option of running a full here. Apparently the kilometer markers count down, not up!
7. Melissa's 10K Road Race in Banff on September 27th. This is providing I'm able to register as the entries for this go like hot cakes in this town. There is a half marathon option here too, but number one choice is the 10K.
8. Walt Disney World Marathon on January 11, 2009. I have to admit that I am enviously watching Maddy, Ovens2Betsy, Angry and Claire sign up to run the Goofy next year. I would really like to *run* this marathon and run it well so I think I'm going to stick with the option to run the full on its own. One day I want to go back and run the Goofy again, but 2009 won't be the year.