Looking at 2012 - through dusty glasses

One of my delightful children woke us up somewhere around "dark-thirty" during the night.  Bad dream, needed to climb into our bed to hide from "the monsters". 

2 things as a result - 1) lets skip Halloween.  2) Couldn't go back to sleep - started thinking about running / running events / 2012 running events.

If all goes well - meaning if my knees, my rheumatoid arthritis, my life, all behave themselves - I'm thinking that I want to take on the Pikes Peak Marathon as the #1 goal race of the year. 

Up until last week, I was thinking that I would be aiming for the Ascent - hoping that proper training for it would result in a better result than this year's efforts.

Then last Thursday I went up 10 of the 13 miles of the race course, then back down.  My knees seemed to do okay, quads on the other hand are still tender 5 days later.  The seed has been planted.

Another seed that is looking for dirt is the Leadville Heavy Half Marathon, in late June.

In keeping with the "dusty trail running" theme - the Greenland Trail Races in early May.  Either the 8 mile, 25K or (gasp) 50K are possible - kids soccer may determine if and what happens that day.

Lastly - although there likely will be more races - will be one that my son and I will target together: The Barr Trail Mountain Race.  This past year- in his first attempt - he beat the 10-14 year old age group record (as a 12 year old) by over 17 minutes.  Unfortunately, a 14 year old beat him by almost 6 minutes.  So, we have a "revenge" race in mind.

Life happens, I know that, so things may change.  Kind of just wanted to put some goals / events out there for me to aim for.