Me Yesterday: Oh, I'm schooling from home, I'll have plenty of time for life stuff.
Me Today: Finally puts away the MacBook at 8:45ish after schooling almost all day and then has life stuff to do.
But, somehow, the plan is here ...
Run the Friendly Roads: Part 2
The Race … And the Year
Let’s start with the easy stuff … the race.
It starts at 7 AM in Brooklyn. I am allergic to both 7 AM and Brooklyn, so that’s going to be interesting . Current plan is for my dad to drive me, which is very awesome of him. (We haven’t decided yet if he’s then picking me up after the race or if I’m taking the subway, but I can wait a few months to make that decision).
Game plan for the race itself … I dunno. I want to say that I want to go for enjoying the experience more than a PR, but we’ll see how I feel closer to the race. I tend to go for the PR even when I’m not going for the PR. It just kinda happens. I’ve got a few months (and another half) before the race, so I can take time to think about it.
So, that’s all I can say about March 18th. But what about the rest of 2018?
When I first mentioned this race, I also mentioned two NYRR Programs – 4 of 6 (aka Five-Borough Series) and 9+1.
To recap:
If you run 4 of the following 6 races in a year, you get guaranteed entry into the following year’s United Airlines NYC Half:
- NYRR Fred Lebow Manhattan Half
- United Airlines NYC Half Marathon
- NYRR Brooklyn Half
- NYRR Queens 10K
- New Balance Bronx 10 Mile
- NYRR Staten Island Half
I am currently registered for the Fred Lebow Manhattan Half and the United Airlines NYC Half. Plan is to also register for the New Balance Bronx 10 Mile and NYRR Staten Island Half when those become available (if Queens 10K happens to be on Sunday this year, I’ll swap that out for the Bronx 10 Mile). Assuming I finish all 4 races, that should qualify me for the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half without any of this stressful lottery stuff.
9+1 is a program for guaranteed entry into the NYC Marathon. If you are a NYRR member, run any 9 qualifying races and volunteer at one qualifying race, you are guaranteed entry into the following year’s TCS NYC Marathon. I think I’m going for it (although I’m not yet sure if I’ll actually register for & run the marathon).
There are a lot of races that can count, but right now I have 10 races I’m looking at running and 3 I’m looking at volunteering. Which 9 of the 10 races I do will depend on some other schedule things (I just made this list now without looking at my calendar to see if I have any conflicts, so everything is subject to change). For volunteering, I want to do it early, so the first race on the list is my first choice, and the others are options for if something goes wrong.
Also, dates for a lot of these are tentative – NYRR doesn’t announce their race schedule very far in advance, so I’m just basing things on last year’s dates.
Races To Run:
- January 21st – Fred Lebow Manhattan Half (registered)(Five Borough Series)
- March 18th – United Airlines NYC Half (registered)(Five Borough Series)
- April 22nd – Run As One (4M) Presented by JPMorgan Chase
- May 13th – Japan Run (4M)
- June 3rd – Retro 5-Miler
- July 26th – R-U-N 5K
- August 19th – France Run 8K (this is likely to get dropped because I didn’t love it this year, but we’ll see how scheduling works out)
- September 23rd – New Balance Bronx 10 Miler (Five Borough Series)
- October 7th – Staten Island Half (Five Borough Series)
- November 18th – Race to Deliver 4M
Races To Volunteer:
- February 4th – Gridiron 4M/Longest Football Throw (Preferred Option)
- March 4th – Washington Heights Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5K
- April 29th – UAE Healthy Kidney 10K
So, that’s what I’m thinking. Expect more information on all of this as things continue to develop. I will probably start registering for more races early in 2018 and we’ll go from there.
Sorry that this is all words and no pictures ... see above comment about school.