Grand Plans

I started 2019, as we so often do, with the greatest of intentions for my running. I had moved from St Paul, MN to Raleigh, NC in June of 2018 and only really started running again in the fall, as the temperatures became milder. I learned late in the year that Raleigh has it’s own Galloway running group and eagerly registered for the next season, starting in January.

The Galloway group felt great immediately. There were many people who run my pace and I run with them using intervals, since that’s what the group is all about. I started out thinking that I wasn’t going to target any big races (e.g. half marathons) in the spring but would stick to 5ks and the like. I thought, perhaps, I would do a 5k each month in 2019. And I started tracking my miles on a cool coloring sheet — assuming that I’d easily complete the target 500 miles therein and might even need a second sheet. Oh the grand plans!

The year started off well enough. I was getting up early on Saturdays to run with my Galloway peeps. That got my miles done and helped me stick with it when the distances increased and running on my own would have been harder. I was generally logging two short runs during the week in addition to my long runs with Galloway. I discovered that cold, rainy runs are all too common in NC in January and February, but somehow we slogged our way through, often having to slow for ice, puddles or mud, depending on the weather that week.

As the miles increased and I got to chatting with folks, I decided I would run the Diva Half Marathon in Myrtle Beach. I’d heard it was a great race. The timing was right. And it would at a new state to my list – South Carolina. I was also registered for a goal race in the fall, the Zooma Amelia Island half marathon in FL. Since it had been a few years since I’d run a half, doing a race in the spring, before my target race, felt like it made sense.

Signing up for races gets away from me sometimes when I am feeling good about running. Through such moments I found myself registering for two more fall half marathons, one in September and one in November (Zooma was October). No problem, right? I’ve run 6 half marathons in 6 consecutive months before. 3 would be fine. By the time I was done I had a nice little schedule of races planned:

• Mutts & Marshmallows 5K (January 12th)
• Run for the Roses 5k (Februrary 10th)
• Durham Women’s 8k (March 17th)
• North Carolina Spring Classic 8k (April 27th)
• Diva Half Marathon – Myrtle Beach (May 5th)
• Trash Panda Half Marathon (September 14th)
• Zooma Amelia Island Lighthouse Loop 5k – Amelia Island (October 19th)
• Zooma Amelia Island Half Marathon (October 20th)
• Holly Springs Half Marathon (November 23rd)
• Wake Zone Coffee House 5kish Fun Run (November 28th)
• Suggly Sweater Run 5k (December 21st)