Sam Tackeff Half Marathon

I’m not sure how the year is over already, but I officially signed up for my first race of the new year – the Needham New Year’s Day 5k! Signing up for a race always provides me with happy brain chemicals, and it makes me want to sign up for more races – so I thought I’d go ahead and organize my 2015 race schedule. (Also inspired by Dani at Weight Off My Shoulders, who managed to run 52 races in 2014 – which required some serious organization. I’ll be lucky if I can manage to get in a race every month this year.)

[The races I’m already registered for are bolded.]

January 1 – Needham New Year’s Day 5k – 11:00 a.m.

February 22 – Hyannis Half Marathon – 10:00 a.m.

March 15 – Craicfest – 9:30 a.m.

April 18 – B.A.A. 5k – (not registered yet)

May 24 – Boston’s Run To Remember Half – 7:00 a.m.

June 7 – Freedom Run – 9:30 a.m.

July TBA – Iron Girl Webster (not registered yet)

August 9 – Sharon Triathlon (registration opens January 30)

September 13 – Title9 Tri (not registered yet)

September 19-19 – Reach the Beach NH Relay (not registered yet)

October 4 – Oktoberfest – 9:30 a.m.

October 10 – Tufts 10k (not registered yet)

December 13 – Yulefest – 9:30 a.m.

Rock n’ Roll Races: This year I’m a 2015 Rock n’ Roll Blog Ambassador! I have three races to sign up for with my sponsored Tourpass, and I’m busy trying to plan which ones to run. They haven’t announced the dates for all races yet, but I’m considering tentatively either DC (March 14), Chicago (July 18-19), Brooklyn (TBA October), Denver (Oct 18), or Philadelphia.

Other Race Series I’m Interested In: the B.A.A. Distance Medley , the Newton Fattman Race Series. I’ve run all of the races in these series (except for the B.A.A. 5k) in years past and loved them, and am looking forward to running a few of them again. These series are heavily discounted if you sign up for the package, so depending on dates (and making the sign ups, I’m considering both of these again.) I’ve also run a few of the Seacoast Road Race Series, and I’d like to do a few of those this year too!

A note on Triathlon – unlike road racing, with Triathlon you have to actually sign up in advance. Way in advance. I already missed out on two of the races I was interested in racing this year because I missed the registration sell out! (Patriot Half and Cohasset Tri) Next year I’ll have my trigger finger ready! (Okay, so it’s not just triathlon – I also missed registration for the Wallis Sands Half Marathon for my birthday week, alas.)

Other races on my radar: 

The Eastern States 20 Miler (March 29)
Cox Providence (May 3rd) 
TARC (trail running!) race series

Other awesome races that I’m not running this year but hope to run next year: Vermont City Marathon (May 24th) and the Smuttynose RockFest Half Marathon

And other race distances: after my first marathon this fall, I’m convinced that I might be up for longer distances. Might there be a 50k in my future this season? We’ll see where my legs take me.

A final note: of course life happens – I’m sure there will be a race or two I’ll have to miss for some family and friend events, and who knows how my body will hold up. (Crossing my fingers for another strong season injury free!) I’ve been super lucky (possibly because I’m a turtle runner) and have avoided most injury. Most of the time I run races feeling like this:

Sam Tackeff Half Marathon

Happy racing! Will you be racing this year? Want to join me?