Looking Ahead

It’s that time of year again. The racing season is all but over and I find my mind wandering all over the place with events that I want to do in the upcoming year. It’s a time to both plan and relax and get back to basics. I like to work out in the winter months for the pure joy of it and not put too much pressure on myself to “train”. Usually my eyes are wider than my common sense and I start circling dates on the calendar for events that I know won’t pan out. There are so many things that I want to do but there are only so many days in a year. But each year there are certain absolutes or A races that always serve as anchors and the rest of the year sort of settles in around those events.

I have received invitations to do some pretty cool races that have been on my short list for a few years. One is the American Zofingen duathlon in New Paltz New York in the spring. This is supposed to be one of the most challenging courses in the country and I have heard so many great things about New Paltz. I think this race just may need to happen for me this year.

I also expect to race the Duathlon National Championships in Richmond Virginia in the spring. This is an outstanding event right here in our own USAT Mid-Atlantic region and I am looking forward to this a lot. I visited the venue last year for a USA Triathlon meeting and loved it.

This year’s iron distance triathlon will probably be in Montreal in September. The Triathlon Esprit de Montreal has been on my radar for years. It is a lightning fast course run on a formula one race car course that is repaved each year. It is one of those best kept secret races and is actually a festival of several events. My only issue is that this race is too close to the ChesapeakeMan ultra distance triathlon to be able to do both events, so I would need to figure something out … can’t miss Chessyman. I am a firm believer in supporting the “ultra indies” – the independently run ultra distance triathlons. Although I love the NA Sports events a.k.a “M-Dot” races, I also believe there is a solid market and need for the grassroot iron distance races. And 140.6 miles is 140.6 miles no matter how you slice it. Of course I will also run in the Philadelphia Marathon in November of 2010. That has become a fall tradition for me. I love the race and love that time of year.

I will also do many of the South Jersey shore sprint triathlons. There seems to be a race just about every weekend down there. So when we are down, I like to jump in as many of those as I can. Of course I will continue to provide support for a number of races throughout the year such as the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon, Danskin Philadelphia and Midge and Tim Kerr’s races in Avalon. They will always be “give back” races for me and ones that I will “work” and not race.

Team in Training will kick into high gear soon and most people know how much I love coaching and working with those athletes. I always feel like I get back more than I give working with that organization. It’s very rewarding and a great partnership. In fact I will deliver the inspirational talk this weekend at the Team in Training dinner before the Philadelphia Marathon. As I sit here collecting my thoughts for this talk, I think the key word will be – choice. We may not always have a choice in the stuff that happens to us, but we certainly have choices in how we react and how we respond to that stuff. And those responses are the true measure of character.

Enjoy the day !