Aurora's Blog

 Hey there!

I keep thinking about blogging some odds and ends from the Florida vacation that were pushed back by other things (and possibly a few more thoughts about the awesome Book of Mormon, since apparently only two posts on one musical still might not cut it).

Instead, at the end of the night for the last two nights, when I’ve thought about what to blog, I’ve just reached for some go-to posts that I’d been saving for times I didn’t otherwise know what to post.

Why, when I have so much to talk about, would I need to go to some blogs in storage? Because at the end of the day for the last few days, my brainpower has been totally wiped. I have no thoughts left except those focusing on future races.

Originally, I thought, “Oh, while I’m here in Ohio chilling at my dad’s house, this will be a perfect time to get the year in order – see some friends from high school for a few hours a day, work on the schedule in all my free time, and bing, bang, boom. Everything works out quickly and perfectly.”

Well, I didn’t take into account that even just trying to plan things in the pretty immediate future – time for all my friends from high school, a bus ticket to DC this weekend, a place to stay in Charlotte, North Carolina next weekend, a way to see every person I know in New York when I go back next week, and of course see oh, so many shows there – would take up a lot of time in itself.

I am so unbelievably thankful that I’m getting some time in the midwest/on the east coast and that there are so many wonderful people in my life who want to (or are at least willing to) hang out with me. And I am SO pumped about all of these races. None of this is a burden by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just a little more tricky and a little more time consuming than I originally thought.

You might think it would be easy to just go to any number of websites that have a schedule of all the half marathons all over the country throughout the year, and then pick out a bunch and call it a day. Or you might be think that one could just fly by the seat of one’s pants all year (which is totes what I’m doing right now).

But here’s the thing, in order to maximize your medals (which is obviously of utmost importance ;)) by doing as many series as possible, and to help people be able to meet up with you throughout the year, you kind of have to have a really great idea of what you’re doing.

Some series (such as Rock ‘n’ Roll Heavy Medals) have tons of different choices, so you build those races around the series (such as the Beach Cities Challenge) that are precisely three races with no wiggle room or race decisions to be made by the racers.

It’s surprisingly hard to put all the puzzle pieces together.

My schedule isn’t etched in stone, but I feel good about the fact that it has an awesome shape, and is almost completely made at this point!

At this point, 7 half marathons in, I’m going to predict that the hardest part about the 52 in 52 challenge is the logistics – planning the schedule, planning the travel, figuring out where to stay, keeping registrations and receipts and plane tickets and bus tickets and everything organized, and all that jazz. Just getting up in the morning and completing 13.1 miles 52 times this year will not be the hardest part. At least, I don’t think that yet. Maybe check in around race number 30, and see what kind of song I’m singing then…

Humongous shout out to Gary from Xterra Snow Valley who heard about my fun 52 in 52 adventure and gave me a free race entry! So, let’s all go run that together as a big thank you for the kind-heartedness! (I hear that Johannah‘s in.)

[Edited to add: As thankful as I am for Gary’s kindness, that race didn’t pan out because the person I was going with got injured at the last minute. Yada, yada, yada.]

Also, a big shout out to Chris from Petaluma Moo-Cow Half Marathon for giving me a very steep discount on that race. I feel like a celebrity with all this special treatment! Chris, Gary, thank you both very, very much.

And hey, 52 weeks of half marathoning, bring it on! I’m ready for you!