I’ve picked my big goal race for 2017, now it’s time to get serious:

Munich is a special city for me. It has long been my favorite place to visit (I’ve been countless times), and I always hoped it would be my first marathon. Timing didn’t work out for that, which was probably for the better as I raced much closer to home, but this will be my first international race.

The race is still 31 weeks from today, so I will not be specifically targeting the marathon for a bit, but most of what i do between now and October 8 will have this in mind. My plan for the next 31 weeks is:

• 5k in 3 weeks. I’m not really ready for this, but I’ve already registered and it is for a heart charity so it is a must do. I have started adding faster running to prepare, including speed workouts each of the last two weeks. However, I still don’t anticipate doing as well as last year, as I have not had a great last three months of running. Not awful, just no where near what I’d hoped. Work stress, illness, travel have all gotten in the way. I’m pretty far behind the aggressive goal I’d set for 2017:
• At least one 10k between April and June, location and timing TBD.
• A half marathon between June and early August. This will likely be the SF (2nd) Half Marathon, which I ran last year and which really beat me up. I’d like to beat this race, rather than it beating me again. This will really tell me how I’m tracking for a goal time for the marathon.
• Get my weekly mileage up from my 1st marathon mileage, which was already the most I’ve done, albeit still light for marathon training.
• Possibly hire a coach. For some reason, I’m concerned I won’t find one willing to coach someone with my health history, but maybe that’s just paranoia.

I’ve already booked my room for the race and also the city I’ll go directly after: A beautiful spa town to unwind from the marathon. I have not booked out the rest of the trip, including flights, but I’m getting closer to narrowing this down. If you’re planning on running this race, feel free to reach out to me!