The 2012 Race Schedule Has Been Set (It’s Like a Fantasy Football Draft, Only Lamer)

I know it’s only November, but Teresa has me training like my “A” race is right around the corner (and it kind of is since I’m running the Seattle Half Marathon). I’m a bit nervous about having such a jam-packed 2012 race schedule after coming off a fat and injured 2011 season, but I’m feeling good and the coach seems pretty confident in me, so it’s game on, beeyotches.

Behold, my 2012 race season (aka, the last year I get to race in the glorious 25-29 age group before being thrown to the fast and strong 30+ assholes):

November 26th: Seattle Half Marathon

This will be my first half marathon since the Eugene half in spring 2010, where I PR’d on a relatively flat and fast course. I’ve never done the Seattle half or full marathon despite having lived here for over 10 years. There’s something about the course being difficult and the fact that it’s during a typically shitty time of the year weather-wise that hasn’t struck me as being terribly appealing. However, a ton of teammates are racing the half and a lean and fast Jas is hoping to run a 3:30 or better in the full, so I decided to woman up and race it too. It’s hard to say what I’ll bust out on Sunday–I’ve been running well lately, which is a refreshing change from how slow and painful my runs were for the first half of 2011. I’d like to do 1:45 or better, which would be a PR for me (on a tough course, no less), but as long as I have a solid, strong race, I’ll be pretty happy.

March 18, 2012: Rev 3 Costa Rica

It’s happening, folks! Jason and I are going to kick off the tri season waaaaaaay too early for my tastes by doing our first half Ironman of the year in freaking March. I bet my first outdoor ride and open water swim will be the week we get there, right before the race. The trip will actually end up being relatively inexpensive since I used miles to book our plane tickets and we’ll be sharing a house rental with two other couples. The pricey part will be hauling our crap and the race registration. One thing I’m not thrilled about is that people complained the swim was way long last year (the top swim time was 10 minutes slower than typical, which means my slow-ass swim time will end up being like a half hour worse than usual if they don’t correct the course for this year’s race) and some swimmers got stung by fucking jellyfish during the race. WHAT. I wasn’t aware of this before booking my trip. Oh God. If I get stung by a jellyfish (and you know I will because I’m the Mediocre Athlete with the worst luck ever), that’s pretty much a race ruiner right there. Oh well, at least I’ll get to hang out in Costa Rica with my friends and boyfriend.

May 2012: Mt. Rainier Duathlon

Teresa will probably make me do this again. The only conundrum is whether I should try and defend my title one last time in the short course before I have to age up next year or if I should graduate myself to the long course since it’ll be better training for Canada. On one hand, the long course will be a better workout. On the other hand, GHETTO TROPHYYYYYYYYYY. Decisions, decisions.

June 2, 2012: Honu 70.3

My second tropical destination race of the year. I fully expect the winds to be atrocious and the heat/humidity to be brutal. A lot of teammates will be racing so it should be a fun destination race. We’re rooming with Mark and Teresa again–by the end of the season we will have stayed with them for four different races. (At this point I’m wondering if we should just buy a house together and pull a “Big Love” minus the whole polygamy thing.) I haven’t been to Hawaii since I was five years old and Jason hasn’t been since he was in high school and went with his family. Fun fact: we were both sick during our only vacation to Hawaii–I had strep throat and Jason had mono. Here’s hoping this coming trip will be better for both of us.

July 8, 2012: Rev 3 in Portland

I wasn’t thrilled with the course and it looks like the race will be in the same spot as last year, but they’ve changed the bike course so it’s now one challenging loop instead of two crotch-busting but flat loops. The swim and run will probably be the same. I’m not super excited about this race, but seeing as how my other option in July was Lake Stevens, I’d rather go back to Portland. I know of at least one teammate who is racing it and Jason will be there for support (but not to race since he’ll be fresh off Ironman Coeur d’Alene), plus we have friends in Portland we can hang out with that weekend, so it should still be a fun time.

July 22, 2012: Seafair

I haven’t decided on this one yet, but I kind of want to do the sprint triathlon one last time before I age up to 30-34 next year. Since I’ll be training so much this season, it’ll be fun to see how well I’ll place in my age group. Maybe next year I’ll give the olympic distance a try, but I wouldn’t mind doing the sprint distance one more time before hitting the big 3-0.

August 26, 2012: Ironman Canada

My big ‘ol “A” race. I’d like to break 12 hours this time around and plan to put in some serious training time in order to try and hit that goal. I think I can improve across the board, but I can make especially big gains in the swim portion if I get off my ass and commit to my workouts. We’ll see how the season goes–I’m pretty excited and looking forward to seeing how fit and strong I can get for this race.

My goals for the half are to try and keep them under 6 hours if possible, which could be a bit challenging because I’m doing two races in humid tropical environments, but hopefully I can stay strong for the 70.3s and get some confidence going into Ironman Canada.

I wanted to do a marathon in January or February so that I can finally break 4 hours (a goal I should have hit the last time I did a standalone marathon but the race went horribly awry), but Teresa wants me to focus on Ironman training and said that I can plan for my sub-4 goal for Canada, at which point I laughed heartily and assumed she was joking. Sub-4 off the bike would be pretty insane for me, but hey, if she can coach me to it then I owe her a huge gift basket full of Lululemon crap and chocolates.

Welp, that about does it so far for my 2012 race season. I’ll have some organized rides and whatnot sprinkled in there (I think Teresa wants me to try and sign up for RAMROD if I can get in), plus I’m not sure what I’ll do after Canada (maybe I can convince T to let me do a marathon, although the last time that happened after an Ironman, I got tendinitis so I’m not sure how gung-ho she’ll be), but it’s going to be a pretty packed season through the end of August. If I survive, I’ll hopefully emerge with some PRs, some finisher medals, some good stories, and minimal sun damage and taint chafing.