Race recap, and then some

Remember this post?  When I decided my "comeback" race was going to be the Santa Claus Shuffle?

Well it was great!  We had a lot of fun, and felt ridiculous wearing those silly Santa suits.

My friend Ray opted to wear my warrior dash helmet instead of the traditional Santa hat.

All together there was about 1400 people, about roughly 1000 of them were Santas.  We were quite a sight, I'm sure.

And I'm pretty proud of how I did!  I've been having some hip flexor issues, and was worried that is was going to significantly affect my time.  Turns out, I did have to stop to stretch/walk a few times, but I still managed to run the 3 miles in 34:38.  I'm not going to break any world records, but that's pretty good for me!  In fact, I played with the numbers, and figured what my time would have been if I had needed to run the extra 0.1 miles to made it a full 5K- I would have PR'd!  Especially since I used my average pace for the entire race, and I know my last mile was by far my fastest.  Not too shabby for gimpy Katie!

My goal for this year was to run a 5K.  I've decided to step up my game for this upcoming year.  The company who organized the Santa Shuffle has released their running schedule for next year.  Everything from a short, one mile downhill speed race, to the epic NH 10miler.  My goal for next year, is to run each and every single one of them.  And you know what?  I'm not going to stop there.  Since the 10miler is in September, I figured that it would only make sense if I push myself the extra little bit and run the Manchester half marathon in November.  I mean, at that point what's another 3.1 miles, right?  So between those races, the 1/2, the Warrior Dashes, and the local races I did this year, I've got a busy year planned.  This is what it looks like as of right now:

January

1/1 Millennium Mile (1 mile)

March

3/25 Shamrock Shuffle (2 miles)

June

6/9 Warrior Dash NE

6/17 RibFest 5 Miler

6/? Goffstown Gallop (5 miles)

 July

7/3 HASLAW Manchester Mile (5k, 1 mile speed race)

August

8/? CIGNA 5K

8/11 Warrior Dash NY

September

9/1 NH 10 Miler

November

11/? Manchester City half Marathon

11/22 Thanksgiving Day 5K

December

12/1 Santa Claus Shuffle

I know it looks crazy, but I think this is the best way to ensure that I keep going!  I tend to slack if I don't have a race to push towards.  Easy solution- always be registered for an up coming race.