2015 Running Schedule

Since finishing the Quad Cities Marathon back on September 28th, I have been like a rocket ship with one of its engines not working.

Running is one of my rocket engines. I will confess it is one of my larger engines where it should have a more proportional size to other aspects of my life. So for over 2 months now, I have been “drifting” because I have not had any specific race to train for. On one hand, it gives me time with the family, time to recuperate, time to focus on other endeavors. However, on the other hand, being known as a “Runner”, the first (and easiest) thing way to start a conversation is for someone to ask “So, are you training for anything?”.  When you are not training, the conversation generally stops abruptly at “No”.  Enter the ‘Runner With No Race’.

To help illustrate the ‘Runner With No Race’, I extracted some song lyrics to illustrate. [After finishing this post, I could write “Runner Without A Race”, a parody of Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face”]

from “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugar Hill Gang:

“Like a millionaire that has no money
Like a rainy day that is not wet,
Like a gamblin’ fiend that does not bet
Like Dracula without his fangs,
Like the boogie to the boogie without the boogie bang
Like collard greens that don’t taste good,
Like a tree that’s not made out of wood
Like goin’ up and not comin’ down,
Is just like the beat without the sound, no sound”

and selected lyrics from “What?” by A Tribe Called Quest:

“What’s Alex Haley if it doesn’t have roots?
What’s a weekend if you ain’t knockin boots?

What is a glock if you don’t have a clip?
What’s a lollipop without the Good Ship?

What is a paper without a president?
What is a compound without an element?”

So, hopefully that makes it clear about a runner who has no race to run. I’m getting ready to reignite my engine, here’s my running schedule for 2015:

Calhoun’s 10 miler – Jan 24 – Part of the KTC Winter Long Distance Series and training run for the Knoxville Marathon. It is quite possible that I could try to break my 10 miler PR time of 1:25:55 Possible

Strawplains Half Marathon – Feb 7 – Part of the KTC Winter Long Distance Series

Whitestone 30k – Mar 1  – Part of the KTC Winter Long Distance Series

Knoxville Marathon – Mar 29 – I’m the Pacer Captain for this race and plan on filling a spot

Expo 10k – Late-May – One of my fave races, possible attempt at 10k PR time of 48:06

Fireball 5k – Early July – I usually work the Water Stop at this iconic Independence Day race

Big South Fork 17.5 mile Trail Run – Late Sept – Close to my Birthday and we usually go camping at the campground where the race starts/finishs. Trail Running is Awesome!

Farragut Half Marathon – Oct 31 – Going for the “Half Double” (two Half Marathons in two consecutive days), if the 2 races are scheduled back-to-back. One of my marathon goals is to run a Full Double (two Marathons in two consecutive days) but logistically, there’s not too many Sat/Sun races for me to choose. Right now, the least crazy option is the Chickamauga/Outer Banks combination. So for now, I will settle for a Half Double.

Foothills Half Marathon – Early November – 2nd Leg of the “Half Double”, if the schedule remains the same.

Flying Monkey Marathon – Mid-November – If the schedule holds and get an entry to the race, this will be marathon #25! I had Monkey Lament this year for not running this year. [Holding up my hand] I do solemnly promise not to miss another Flying Monkey.

Rocket City Marathon – Early December – This will be my Premier Race. Running the ‘challenging’ Flying Monkey course about 2 weeks prior to Rocket City will set me up well to shoot for a sub 4 hour marathon finishing time. Finishing under 4 hours is my highest Marathon goal, and I was only 5 minutes away at Quad Cities this September.

Pistol 50k – Early January 2016 – This is  well managed race that puts the runner first! I look forward to running it again and I can use Rocket City to piggyback with training.

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