http://www.dogfish.com/dogfishdash--Rehoboth, DE.Dogfish Head Brewery hosting the 5th Annual Dogfish Dash!Looks like a really fun race.Capped at 1500 runners, the race seems to have a really great atmosphere.Definitely looking forward to running this race on 9/26/2010.
http://www.baa.org/HalfMarathon/Default.asp--Boston, MA.SUPER EXCITED to be involved with this race.After initially getting locked out at registration the BAA folks gave me a waiver to register.This race, has a great course, great atmosphere and raises money for two great charities - The Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and The Jimmy Fund.
http://www.obxmarathon.com/Top_Nav/outerbanksmarathon/fpraces_courseinfo.htm --Kitty Hawk, NC.Looking forward to getting down to North Carolina in November!Should be slightly warmer that NOVA.The 13.1 mile course takes you past the airfield where the Wright Brothers first took flight!I can't wait to wander around the city after the race!
http://www.odmarathon.org/TenMileInfo.cfm --Cape May, NJ.Wow...You'd figure I would have done NJ a long time ago, but alas, I never got around to running anything really long in NJ.This is another great Beach run, not too expensive, near some really great restaurant for pre-race dinners, and for post race gluttonyJ
http://www.bsim.org/The_Twenty-Sixth_Presentation.htm-- Monterey, CA.This one is going to be beautiful.I have no intentions of racing through this course.I want to take in all that this course has to offer, and having never been to the west coast and seen the Pacific Ocean, that will be everything!I also can't wait to try out some local dinning establishment.
States already complete- Philly Half Marathon --Philadelphia, PA;Cherry blossom 10 miler -Washington, DC; Baltimore Half Marathon -Baltimore, MD; 26.2 With Donna Breast Cancer Marathon - Jacksonville, FL;Army Ten Miler --Arlington, VA; Country Music Half Marathon -Nashville, TN.
If anyone knows of any great races, I am always looking for recommendations. I am looking for races that aren't always the BIG races, but still have great community, and enviroment.
It's been a few strange months since I have written!
There has been a lot going on in the world of eat, run, sleep and I just haven't had a spare moment to write about it.I feel I must attack each item in the order that they occurred so I can properly remember what happened!
I finished up the month of April with some great training runs.People can attest to the fact that I was running with a great deal of energy and conviction.I had the Country Music Half Marathon coming up and I wanted to be ready to hit a new PR. This was a race I had set ahead of me, and had put some great consideration into running.I was treating it as a rebirth, a point at which I would start to take a new direction with my life and with my running.I had made a decision to attempt to run a race of 10 miles in all 50 states(I decided to back count a few)but Nashville represented the first real state on my list.It was symbolic to me,I hadn't raced since December, and I was going to see some people that I hadn't seen in a while. I just wasn't sure how it was all going to go down, this was a race, a moment, at the very time I needed it.Ok, with the serious stuff out of the way a few funny stories did occur during this training time;I went out for a normal run(which is about 6-8 miles), but was feeling really great, so I kept going, and going, and going......turned into a solid 16.5 mile run.The funny part isn't the run, it's that my brother was ready to call out the National Guard to look for me because I typically don't disappear for that long. He has never actually run down the hill in search of me before, and never before has he been like concerned/angry! I also learned that I can run to my gym from work.It's about 9 miles of mostly flat terrain, which is great...but I learned I could do it while wearing a 20 pound backpack!It was truly fun learning the extent at to which I could push myself during this training period.
Weather.com had said it might be rainy the weekend of the race...stormy...so I arrived in Nashville hoping for grey overcast and a nice temperature for the race.My good friend Doug lives in town so he was nice enough to let me stay by him, and drive my butt to the expo.The country music marathon does know how to really organize their stuff!It was one of the nicest expo's I had ever been too.Simple, easy race packet pick up, they kept the lines moving, and there was just enough stuff to see, and to play with that made you stick around for a while.It did a great job of pumping you up for the event itself!Seeing how this blog is also about running I will rave about where I had my pre-race dinner, The Italian Store in Nashville was a great place to enjoy a quiet meal.Food was good(I had linguini with a meat sauce), and some of a large anti-pasta.Portion size was good(which is important don't want to be bloated) and it was not heavy on the salt - see bloated. Weather.com was right though, there were storms arriving.It rained Friday night, woke up to overcast on Saturday, with a chance of Tornado's...oh boy.....also they pushed they race time up...didn't know that detail till I was on the line for the race!So.....I ran without a warm up, without stretching, and having raced from the bathroom to make the gun(that's right I was seated..how...I don't know)Sadly, I didn't run the race I wanted to, and the course was far hillier than the elevation chart on the webpage said, but overall it was a enjoyable time and race.I am not going to go into the detail of the race, I'll simply say it was a cool course.The atmosphere was great, people line the entire course, band are at every mile, and the town gets involved beside the normal volunteers.Water, and whatever the Gatorade rip off was they were servingstations were manned by friendly encouraging people.I was sad to see the Marathon get called early due to the weather, but the safety of all those around had to be taken into consideration.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other quick Nashville places that are a must!Bongo Java - they serve a breakfast bagel called "The bachelor" it's a perfect pre-race day before kinda lunch. It's a wheat bagel served with natural peanut butter, and a banana sliced on top with a bit of cinnamon.It's got a little of everything runners want, carbs, potassium, and maybe a little sugar.
Also!Jack's BBQ....I pigged out after the race, as the rain came down outside in buckets, I devoured the choice bbq inside.Totally enjoyable meal!DEFINITELY AN AFTER RACE THING!
I need to also mention that this race occurred a week before the flooding in Nashville.It was really hard to see the destruction that took place to the town which just a few days earlier, had hosted such a great event.It's been a few months, and from what I am hearing from my friends, things are looking way up.There is still a lot to be done though!People lost everything in this flood, the same people who stood on the side and held their hands out with water, who clapped their hand and cheered us onto the finish!Check out this donation page, it is on the marathons main webpage so it's legit.http://nashville.competitor.com/features/donate-to-nashville-flood-relief/
