What a long two months it's been! Yeah life kind of got in the way. Oops! Suffice it to say, I've covered a small bit if ground in the past two months.
One of my goals whe I started 2014 was to run in as many states as I could this year, ideally racing. The idea was inspired in part by the Fifty States Club. It was also inspired by travel I already had planned for this year. And why not? Running is a fantastic way to see a new area! I didn't have a set number but "10" seemed realistic and like a nice round number. As great of a city as Chicago is, out and back on the Lakefront Trail does get old after a while. I needed something fresh.
At the outset, I ran a full in California (1) followed by some recovery miles in Arizona (2). Of course I live in and thus quite frequently race in Illinois (3).
I started April with a work trip to Florida for a conference. Yes, my job sent me to Disney. Tough life. :-) Of course that meant Florida is on the map. (4). Of the runs I got in during my stay, none was better than a 5am run outside of Magic Kingdom in 73 degrees. It was finally a warm run, and there was nobody at Magic Kingdom at 5am, a stark contrast to 5pm later that day. The result was that I triggered motion sensing lights outside at the entryway. I turned the lights on at Magic Kingdom!
At the end of the work trip, I took a side trip to Kansas City for the Rock The Parkway Half Marathon. But first was a 6 hr layover in North Carolina. What to do for 6 hrs? Oh yeah.
For something like that though, I usually use a heat mapping tool to figure out where to go. Being a Garmin girl, the one the have on their Connect site is pretty nice, and no, you don't need to be a Garmin owner to use it. There's other mapping tools, available, but the heat map feature gives me a sense of comfort that I'm going to be running in perhaps a safer area.
The other part that I had to figure out, what to do with my carry-on. Sure I could have packed lighter. But in reality, no, no I couldn't. "Packing light" doesn't
North Carolina (5) added!
The thing about KC that I didn't realize was just how hilly it was! I recorded an almost 1500 ft gain over 13.1 miles! Also I learned, never listen to another runner say "it's all downhill from mile 10." Lies! Kansas (6) and Missouri (7) also are on the map!
Unfortunately the hills of KC plus my lack of preparation for such earned me a hip injury of some sort. I found that while running was impossible that the elliptical was just fine. I spent the next few weeks getting to know my local gym, the Indian Boundary YMCA really well. Fortunately Spring has take it's sweet time to get here so it really was perhaps a welcome change.
The injury seemed to heal in time for me to head to Indy in early May for what's billed as the largest half in the country. Indy's only a 3 hr drive away yet I've never been there! The race, the 500 Festival Mini Marathon typically has 30,000+ runners including many elites due to the flat nature of the course and the favorable conditions usually experienced in the Midwest in May. Though I also think part of the reason is that you get to run a lap on the Indiannapols Motor Speedway! Indiana (8) is on the map.
These travels have taught me, or rather reinforced, a few things about run traveling...
- Carry it (or wear it) on. Ok, so this is like the golden rule of traveling for your run or traveling for anything. If you have some so drastically important that you don't want to trust to the luggage gods, keep it with you. For me, having the peace of mind to know that my shoes, race day outfit, Garmin, etc will make it is a giant stress removed when I already have pre-race jitters.
- Take it with you. For me this has been my no-bake energy balls. I put them in a ziploc and bring them along. Don't chance race day to something new. Plan ahead.
- Map it out ahead of time. If you're planning on running your own route, check out heat map tools available to make sure you're running in a safe area. Of better yet, ask a friend. Or better yet, run with a friend that knows the area. At very least, less time planning the route before you get there is more time enjoying wherever you're going.
- Find a race that coincides with your other travel. Two sites that I've used quite extensively are Running in the USA's calendar and Marathon Guide. If you're going to be somewhere over a weekend, give those a look and see what's happening nearby.
- Enjoy the scenery. I don't try to hold back, but I "run travel" to see a new area. And if that means that I stop and let myself take a picture or two or thirty, I do it. That means that I try not to compare those times to my PR's and feel bad about my performance. Of course if I can do that AND PR, win!
- Study the scenery. Well, elevation and weather. Don't assume that "just a half" is equal to what you're used to at home.
So that leaves me with a whole two states away from that "10" for this year. If goes as planned, I should have that done my mid June, adding Wisconsin and Michigan as 9 and 10. And then I still have 6 months left! I've got less planned travel in the rest of the year and other states are much harder to get to than the border states. But hey who knows, right?
Have you tried to run in new areas?
What's your run travel goals?
Any rules of run travel that you live by?
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