2011's Race Schedule

Well, the big news today is that I finally signed up for my first race of 2011.  Oddly enough, it will likely be one of my last races of the year.  That's right.  This October, I'll be attempting the Twin Cities Marathon.  This will be my first try at a marathon.  Now, I know what you're thinking: "Wait.  Didn't you do a marathon during the Ironman last year?".  Well, yes, I suppose so.  But, this time around it'll be nice to run that distance without all that hoo-ha with the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike beforehand.

Anyway.  That's what my season will be leading up to, but there's plenty to do between now and then.  At the end of April, The Wife and I will be doing the Get in Gear race together.  Last year, she did the 5K while I lead the cheering crew.  She's planning to do the 5K again, and I'm aiming to to the 10K.  We did a triathlon relay a couple of years ago, but this will be the first time where we're on the course at the same time.  In fact, with the way that they're timing the starts of the two races, I'm hoping we can finish at pretty close to the same time.  It'll be cool.

In May, I'll be doing the Ironman Bike Ride in Lakeville, MN.  This will be my 4th time around with this ride.  Weather has always been a big question mark for this event.  In the past, there's been wind, rain, snow, sleet, and yes, even sneet during the ride.  I haven't decided which distance I'll be doing yet.  There's a 35-ish ride, a 68-ish ride and a century.  If I can get in some decent cycling miles this spring, then I'll aim for the century, but since it's literally the day AFTER the Get in Gear race, I may opt for the 68 mile distance instead.

The tri season starts in earnest in June.  I had such a great experience at the Liberty Triathlon last year that I just HAD to do it again.  Since my 'A' triathlon is in July (more on that in a bit) and my training plan will be starting earlier this year, I'll have quite a bit more miles under my belt in June.  So, it'll be interesting to see if I can crack off a faster time.

July will be a busy month.  Of course, I had to the Chaska Sprint Tri again.  Chaska is one of my favorite races and this will be my 3rd go at it.  A little over a week later, I'll be doing the Chisago 1/2 Iron.  This is a fairly large race just north of the Twin Cities.  It's also the only local 1/2 Iron that I haven't tried yet.  Chisago will be my 'A' race, so all of my Spring and Summer training will be leading up to this.

August will start out with Tour de Tonka.  Like, the Ironman Bike Ride, this is a community event.  So, there won't be any times, just a nice long ride.  Again, there will be a wide range of distances ranging from 16 to 100 miles.  I'm aiming to do the century ride again.  At the end of August, I'm planning to do the Maple Grove Triathlon.  This is an Olympic distance (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) race and has only been around a couple of years.  Strangely, for all the races I've done over the last couple of years, this will be only my 2nd Olympic distance.  My first was Trinona way back in 2009.

I don't have any races scheduled in September.  I'll be too busy training for the Twin Cities Marathon on October 2.  Sure, I'll have built up a good running base throughout the summer, but September will have some of the longest runs before I start tapering for the marathon.

So far, it's looking to be an exciting year.  There will be plenty of familiar events and a good number of new races as well.  Everything will be local too, so there won't be any road trips.  That's cool though. There will still be plenty of opportunities to travel again.  You know, once I can convince The Wife to let me sign up for another Ironman. 

There will probably be a couple more events peppered in there too.  The Wife and I have talked about doing an indoor tri this spring, and there's always the chance of doing a few more running events next fall.  But shoot, there's already plenty on my plate for now.