Unlike last year, I'm mainly staying off the trails this year. Last year, I did the Western New Hampshire Trail Series. While I loved the races, they were quite a distance away. I was frequently traveling one or two hours to get to a race, and by the time I got home, I had blown most of my Saturday.Not the case this year. I'm doing the Capital Area Race Series (CARS), which is a series of seven races around the Concord, NH area (where I live). Some of the races are as close as 15 minutes away, and the farthest one is 30 minutes away. I'll finish the race and still be home by 11--just how I like it. Plus, I get to run it with my girlfriend a bunch of friends, which is fun. The races are usually only 5K's, so a lot less effort is required than the trail runs last year.
I've also added a couple of races outside of the CARS series, only one of which is overly ridiculous. And I added a half marathon, so that's at least something with a little bit of distance to get my training going.
- Gilmanton 5K road race (March 30)
- SEA 5K road race (April 6)
- NHTI Delta Dental road race (April 19)
- Canterbury Shaker Village XC 5K (May 11)
- Harpoon 5-miler (May 19)
- Over the River and Through the Woods (June 1)
- Mt. Washington Road Race (June 15)
- Bill Luti 5-miler (July 20)
- Canterbury Woodchuck Classic 5K (July 27)
- Covered Bridges Half-Marathon (September 1)
I'm definitely happy to be staying closer to home and that I'm getting at least one crazy race in (the 7.5 mile run up a mountain). I think I'm going to pick the bike up a bit more this year, especially if I can coax some people to join me.
And away we go!
