Some Decisions, At Last

So, after several weeks of wringing my hands over selecting a fall half marathon, I've managed to come to least a few decisions. If everything works out, I'm going to shoot for the Paul Reese Memorial Clarksburg Country Run in Clarksburg, CA on November 13. I know it's not -really- in the Bay Area, but it's got several other cool things going for it that caught my attention.

First, it's a small field (like, under 500 people small), and it's been a long time since I've run a long race that intimate (probably since the Los Gatos Jungle Run back in '08). It's also a PA USATF Championship race, which not only means the course is certified, but also that it's likely to have a less touristy vibe than some of the bigger races. The course is flat, fast, and only has about 10 turns to memorize (really, only 5, though, when you consider that it's an out and back course), and last but not least, is reasonably priced at $55. The other nice thing is that registration doesn't even open until August 15, so there's no rush to sign up, or any price increases to worry about. So yeah. I'm looking forward to that.

I'm entertaining the possibility of running another half closer to home this fall as a tune-up race, maybe in September, depending on my job situation. There's always the possibility of switching to the Half for the Race to the End of Summer in September, which I'm currently planning on running as a 5K. I would rather run a half in early October, but there just aren't as many good local options. Primo's is still on the table for that as well; the good thing about that is that I can put off signing up until the last minute if I need to.

In the more immediate future, I'm looking at the SF Pride Run in Golden Gate Park on June 25th, a small 5K / 10K event put on by the SF Frontrunners for $30 a head. It'll be the first in a series of several 10Ks for me this summer, and a nice, low-key one to start off with.

Currently my hip seems to be holding up reasonably well. I spent the last couple of weeks doing mostly slow, comfortable runs at reasonable distances and have just started adding shorter tempo and race-pace runs. By the end of this week, I should be up to around 20-25 miles, and hopefully back up to 30 a week or two after that. In the mean time, I'm trying to be a good person and stick to all my PT stuff so that things continue to fire correctly (which is sometimes easier said than done...).