Ch-Ch-Changes
Look, look, look, an update! I updated! And it’s not just an update saying that I’m going to update, it’s an actual update! Aren’t you guys so proud of me???
(This post is a lot of words, so I may throw in some random pictures to break up the monotony. They will be a mixture of running, Disney, and general life pictures. Also … this was written in like 12 pieces, so it barely makes sense.)
The main point of this update is the race schedule, which is slightly more official now that NYRR has released their 2019 schedule. There are some changes. Some new races added, some races changed. There was some thinking to be done for sure.
Random Picture #1 … Disney Store at Times Square
Before we get to the race updates … a training note. Last week, I was scheduled for 4 runs. I ran twice. It was a combination of wanting to rest my knee because it was giving me issues (it seems a little better now, but still not 100%) and just crazy schedule stuff. I’m a little worried that I was just making excuses and I should have run. We’ll see what happens this week, but … I’m kind of annoyed at myself. I’ll post an updated training spreadsheet for the Fred Lebow Manhattan Half at the beginning of January, so you guys will be able to see how pathetic last week was.
An Attempt to Cheer Myself Up … Random Picture #2 (I came into school on my last day and saw this … I didn’t do it. One of my classmates tried to convince me that the hippo was actually a puppy.)
Anyway, on to the exciting stuff. The full 2018 tentative planned race schedule is at the bottom of this post, but here are the changes:
- June 3rd: NYRR 5-Mile – this is the same race I was already planning to run that day, they just changed the name. I’m not entirely thrilled, since I was a little excited about the retro theme, but since the retro race has been moved to a Saturday, I’m sticking with this one
- August 5th: NYRR Manhattan 7 Mile – this is the new race I was so excited about. I’ve never run a 7 mile race before! It’s longer than a 10K, but only a little … I’m kind of super excited about this. Even though it’s in Central Park.
- September 30th: New Balance Bronx 10 Miler – I thought this was going to be the week before, which was really bad timing. This … may or may not be worse timing. I haven’t decided yet. And I don’t have anything else I can replace it with, so … yeah. After the half in March, I’ll think about whether or not I really want to do the 4 of 6 Five-Borough Challenge whatever thing and qualify for next year’s half. It’s not going to be very easy to get these races done.
- October 14th: Staten Island Half – I thought this would be the week before. This one I’m fine with the change in schedule.
Random Picture #3 … Hello YC/BC! (Taken during the 2017 WDW 10K ... probably my favorite picture that I've ever taken with my old phone)
- The November 18th Race to Deliver 4 mile race has been taken off the schedule. I kind of wanted to focus on non-NYRR races in November – I’m hoping to maybe do Wine & Dine, and then I’m hoping they do the RangersTown race again (for those of you who missed my recap on the Running Thread … I loved that race so much that I would have done it again the next day if they gave me that option). Plus I don’t want to totally rule out the idea of my usual Turkey Trot, even though I didn’t love it this year. So … November will be non-NYRR races. Hopefully I will have finished my 9+1 by then anyway (if I actually do it … see below), and if I don’t … I’ll figure it out if it comes up.
- Wine & Dine, while I am counting it as a potential November race, actually has an asterisk on it. More on that later, but … I think I realized this weekend that a return to runDisney may not be possible in 2018. It sucks. Right now I’m looking at a best case scenario being that I have to choose between going to Disneyland with Beth and Wine & Dine, and if that’s the case, I choose Disneyland (worst case scenario is that I can’t do either one). I’m not totally writing off W&D, because there is a small possibility that it could happen, but … right now it’s not looking very likely.
So … those are the schedule changes. Not at all worth the wait, am I right? Seriously, though, I’m stupid excited for that 7 mile race, even though I will probably be too angry at Central Park by that point to enjoy it. Not as excited about likely not doing Wine & Dine, because I was really looking forward to that one. Oh, life …
Also, why can’t NYRR do more of their races outside of Central Park?? Explore a little! Ugh.
Random Picture #4 … Marathon Start in Staten Island (as seen at the 2017 Marathon Pavilion)
Now that you know all of this planning … it might be irrelevant.
I’m in the process of having to make an impossible decision right now. While I think I know what I’m going to decide (and it breaks my heart to have to make that decision), it did force me to sit down and think about a few things. And one of those things is balancing life, work, and running.
As you guys may have noticed, I’m in the middle of a career change. I’m hoping to start a new job in a new field within the next few months. Because of my religious beliefs, there are many days when I will have to use my vacation days for religious holidays (unless I work for Spotify, where they let you switch out religious holidays for legal holidays), and since most companies don’t give unlimited vacation, I really can’t be planning a lot of travelling when I just don’t know how many vacation days I’ll have left after using them on holidays. That’s why Wine & Dine now has its asterisk.
Local races theoretically should be easier, but not necessarily. I’m looking for a job where I can have a good work-life balance and not take my work home with me all the time (I’m looking at you, old job where I basically never stopped working), but I still don’t know that I’ll have the time or energy to be running races once or twice a month. I think my plan for right now is to stick with the 9+1 schedule for as long as I can, but if I ever feel like it’s getting to be too much for me, be okay with dropping most of my races for the rest of the year. I really need to remember that this is a totally new world for me and I can’t overextend myself.
Closing It Down (Almost) With Random Picture #5 …
Funny (to me) Note: This picture was taken on 11/12 as part of my "process" working on my hackathon app. I finally got the Strava integration for the app (at least the first part of it, there's more to do) working yesterday ... over a month later. I started it the day I took this picture.
That’s pretty much all of the updates. If you follow me on Instagram, there’s about a 4% chance that there will be an end-of-year Medal Monday picture (it used to be 5%, but then I decided to sleep in this morning). If you don’t follow me on Instagram … you’re not missing anything. And now, to end this post … my
2018 planned race schedule: (in a perfect world where all running things go as planned)
- January 22nd: Fred Lebow Manhattan Half Marathon
- March 18th: United Airlines NYC Half Marathon
- April 22nd: Run As One (4M) Presented by JPMorgan Chase
- May 13th: Japan Run (4M)
- June 3rd: NYRR 5-Mile
- July 26th: R-U-N 5K
- August 5th: NYRR Manhattan 7-Mile
- September 30th: New Balance Bronx 10 Miler
- October 14th: Staten Island Half Marathon
- November 2nd: Disney Fall Feast 5K*
- November 4th: Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon*
- Unknown: RangersTown 5K