No, it wasn’t one of those 40 oz beers you can buy at a gas station.
Last night we went out to one of our favorite “good beer and kid friendly” places – Rock Bottom Brewery. A long time ago we joined their Mug Club (last night was my 20th visit LOL) and when you are a member, you get a 20oz beer for the price of a pint. In order to carb load for the race, I had two of their brown ales. I planned to come home and write a blog post, but instead, I came home and went to bed. Yeah, I’m quite a party girl. ;o)
We have a number of stressful things going on right now, none of which I can actively do anything about. I’m not very good at just letting things ride and tend to get a bit obsessive and worry non-stop about things I can’t control. To prevent spending my runs worrying, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what races I want to run as part of my goal of racing in all 50 states. What follows is a bit of a “mind dump” as I need to get some of this down on “paper”.
I’ve lived in or visited all 50 states, thanks to my dad’s military career and Beer Geek’s love of travel. There are some states where I don’t care very much what I run, as long as I run, but there are other states where I want to run in a specific area or in a specific race or definitely with my father.
States I want to run with my dad:
Wisconsin – while it would make more sense to run in Madison because we have a lot of connections to it, we have signed up to do the Lighthouse Run this summer.
North Dakota – this may be the hardest to manage. We lived in Grand Forks for twice for three years each time, so we need to race there, but there don’t seem to be a lot of races.
Louisiana – I’d like to run in Bossier City or Shreveport, but Beer Geek’s family is near New Orleans, so we may do that instead.
New Mexico – Albuquerque. This has to wait until the boys are older because I also want to climb the trail up to the peak.
Nebraska – I want to do the Market to Market relay, but we need to find some more runners. I have a cousin who does triathalons, so we can probably convince him, but that leaves us 3 short.
California- we lived in Sacramento, but we’ll probably race in San Diego because my brother lives there.
Alabama – Dad would want to run in Montgomery, but I’ve got those three months of my life pretty well blocked out, mentally. LOL
Other states with “meaning”
Alaska – we took a small ship (60ish passengers) out of Juneau for our honeymoon, so I definitely want to run in Juneau
Washington – somewhere on the coast. We had an awesome, pre-kids vacation there that involved visiting something like 21 breweries/brewpubs.
Michigan – we spent an awesome weekend on Beaver Island and now they have a marathon/half marathon
South Carolina – I want to run the Cooper River bridge race since I got to run that bridge last September when visiting Beer Geek’s brother.
Things that look fun:
Kansas – Brew to Brew Run
New York – The Boiler Maker
I feel like I’m missing something important, but I need to get ready for Jones’ soccer game. Now that you know too much about where I’ve lived/travelled and hopefully learned of some cool races, where would you recommend I run in YOUR state?
For ND, you could run the Fargo HM or full mary. It’s in May each year and is supposed to be a good race, and it’s growing every year.Good luck on your race tomorrow!
NM – There’s Duke City in October or the Albuquerque Marathon (in Aug or Sept). I’ve never run the Albuquerque Marathon events so I can’t speak to those, but Duke City has a route on the bosque trail when the chamisa is in bloom. Pro – it’s pretty. Con – I’m allergic.
For AZ, I highly recommend the Lost Dutchman races. You can adjust your distance anywhere from 5k to marathon depending where you’re at, it’s just outside Phoenix making travel easy, and it is horribly horribly scenic. I’ve been acclimated to the desert’s beauty for a bit now, and it took my breath away. So excited to read about all of the races as they happen.
can’t wait to hear about all these races! FUN!
that’s really cool that so many places have meaning to you and your family! What an adventure!
Congrats on making the MUG CLUB, sister!I can’t make any recommendations for Joisey races because that was a condition for my release on parole …Seriously, I can’t because I just do the races (5k) that are near me and that is my only criterion for doing one – that it be close by. 25 minutes away has been the farthest, so far.Good luck hitting all the states!
Yes! Come to San Diego! There's the Silver Strand 1/2 Marathon in November. And if you don't feel like running it, you can roller-blade it. ha ha ha…Fun & interesting post, Mug Club Mama (so, that is what MCM is for!).
This 50-state chase is sounding more and more fun by the minute!!
You are going to run in some fun races in the process of this 50 states thing. There’s lots of fun races in MN, especially in October. Run for the Apples 5 miler and the Anoka Gray Ghost 5K are both really fun.
Kauai is having its inaugural marathon/half marathon this September. We were going to do it but we are heading to KS!
For Washington state, don’t automatically go for one of the Seattle runs… Bellingham, for example, is a great running town (it’s north, near the Canadian border. I especially like the Fairhaven 15K in late summer. Fairhaven is a charming old town part of Bellingham. The race route is lovely, the post race food is great, and Fairhaven is just a fun place to hang out!