Charlie Brown On Skates

Well, it’s time to take a serious look at what races I can attend this year. I’ve already attended Squiggy to kick off the season, and got off to a good start. Here’s my “wish list” for attending races this year. In other words, if I could get to every race I’d like to barring conflicting schedules, money issues and Lord willing, health, these are the races I’m considering or  attending:

• 3rd Annual Wolverine Inline Marathon, Belle Isle, MI - Saturday, May 24 - I’ve never done this one and it’s supposed to be a fun race.
• The Great Race 10k and Half Marathon Elkhart, IN - Monday, May 26 (Memorial Day) - Close to home, depends on family plans.
• Road America 20K and 13K, Elkhart Lakes, WI - June 7 - Run by our team. It’s unlikely I’ll do this race due to my back, with the steep (and I mean STEEP) hill in this race. If I don’t race it though, I’ll go and volunteer and help run it.
• Baxter Inline Marathon, Brainerd, MN - June 14
• Big Granite Marathon, Ashland, WI - June 28 - These next two are back to back and both in WI. I don’t know if I can afford to go to both, be away from the family all weekend (unless they come along) and most importantly - skate a marathon on back to back days. We’ll see.
• Badger Games Inline Marathon, Portage, WI - June 29
• Chicagoland Inline Marathon, Hoffman Estates, IL - July 26 - This is our race and will be one of the highlights of the year.
• Saint Paul Inline Marathon, Saint Paul, MN - August 3 - Looking forward to getting back here where I skated my first marathon - maybe it won’t be raining this year.
• Hayward Inline Marathon, Hayward, WI - August 9
• Northshore Inline Marathon, Duluth, MN - September 13 - Of course one of the big highlights of the year, can’t miss this one.

That’s 10 potential races, I’d sure like to make 7-8 of them at least, which would give me 8-9 marathons for this year. As I stated in an earlier post, my goal is to skate a sub 1:30 marathon this year. I surprised myself at Squiggy by being 3:36 off that mark in the first race of the season, so it should be doable. A lot is going to depend on getting my back relieved of some pain.

I’m thinking I’ll do Belle Isle for starters since it is the next race coming up, still 11 whole weeks away. That leaves a good chunk of time to get in some good training.