This past weekend, I ran in the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon’s 5K race. Like a lot of the races out there, this weekend had a health expo attached. As I strolled the expo floor, all sorts of other races were represented. That got me thinking about what I’ll be doing after the Walt Disney World Marathon is in the books. What’s next?

First off, I want this medal. The picture doesn’t do it justice. This medal is HUGE and represents completing at least a half marathon in three different races consecutively. Sort of like runDisney had their challenge weekends, three marathons have decided to have a challenge of their own. It was announced last week (or maybe the week before) that the Beach Cities Challenge will be back in 2014. What’s the challenge? Well, you need to finish at least a half marathon in the Surf City Marathon, Orange County Marathon, and Long Beach Marathon. YOu have to do them consecutively. It doesn’t matter if you start with the Surf City Marathon (in Huntington Beach) in February, the Orange County Marathon in May, or the Long Beach Marathon in October, you just have to complete them consecutively.  Not only did I get to see this awesome medal at the expo, but I saw a number of runners after the races in Long Beach sporting their bling afterwards. All I could think after seeing them was…I want one! So, I’m planning on registering for the Surf City Half Marathon soon. I’m going to register for the half for two reasons…1) I have no idea if the Walt Disney World Marathon will be my one and only until after I’ve finished and 2) I’ve heard from a number of runners that the half marathon course for the Surf City races is really the most fun.

Additionally, I would like to run in the Hollywood Half Marathon. Ever since its inugural year, two years ago, I’ve wanted to run in this event. However, two years ago, my first as a runner, this event happened the day before Easter and I had other commitments. Last year, it fell on a weekend that also wasn’t good for me. However, I think that in 2014, I’m going to have to make room in my calendar for this race. From race reports I’ve seen, it looks like a fun race and the medals look pretty good as well. Blue is a favorite color of mine. So, with this year’s medal being a blue one, I might just have to add that to my growing collection.

Anyways, other than planning beyond the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon, I did train some this week. This should have been a week where I completed all 5 scheduled workouts. However, that did not happen. To be honest, there really wasn’t a great reason for the two missed workouts. I was just lazy. I did go out for 3 runs however. All three went really well. On Tuesday, I made my usual 4 mile route around Pasadena. The temps outside were nice and cool.  Then, on Saturday morning I covered the same route again. On Saturday, I was so tempted to skip the run in favor of a lazy morning. I knew it was going to be a warm day and I just wasn’t feeling like getting up early enough to get out and fun 4 miles. So, I turned the alarm off and slept for another hour. After getting up, I went to Facebook and saw so many people reporting of their races that it got me thinking of how much I needed to get out and run myself. So, even though I was leaving later than normal, I went out with low expectations due to the heat.  I had to go out to my car to get my sunglasses before starting. Then, on the way to starting up, I hit play on my playlist and nothing started. So, I closed the music app on my phone and came back to it. When I did, all the music in the playlist was gone. It was still on the phone. However, all of my playlists were showing Zero songs in them. Oh no! I was already late getting out and there wasn’t time to go inside and recreate my lists. So, I just decided to do something I’ve thought of doing before…play the soundtrack to Fantasmic. That’s what I did. Turns out that running to Fantasmic is pretty cool! That wasn’t the end of my potential pitfalls on Saturday morning. I’ve gotten so used to running 4 miles with my Nike+ phone app (which is done mostly at night) that I forgot in the daytime, I couldn’t see the screen very well. So, on my first run interval, I had to guess. During the walk interval that followed, I prepared my watch to keep time. That worked out fine. However, it was a crazy start to what turned out to be a fantastic run! It was my best 4 miles in a few weeks! Glad I chose to go out. Being in a virtual running group got me out the door.

On Sunday, I ran in the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon’s 5K race. Originally, I had signed up to do this race with my wife and a couple of friends. Our friends ended up not being able to make it and my wife got sick on Saturday night into Sunday morning. So, I was going to race this one by myself. I’ll get more into this race with a proper race recap. However, I LOVED this 5K race course! It was so much fun and easily the best 5K I’ve ever done! I came within 4 seconds of setting a new 5K race PR! If only I knew the time I was trying to beat before the race started, I might have actually beaten that time. However, I didn’t. Oh well. Close but no cigar. I still had fun and felt strong the entire race! Additionally, I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much during any race ever!

Here’s how the week went down…

Monday – Rest Day

Tuesday – Ran 4 miles

Wednesday – Unplanned Rest Day

Thursday – Unplanned Rest Day

Friday – Rest Day

Saturday – Ran 4 miles

Sunday – Ran in the Long Beach International City Bank Marathon’s 5K (4 seconds away from a PR!)

This coming week will feature a new scary distance in my long run…17 miles! Yikes!

How was your week? Are there any races on your 2014 calendar that you’re looking forward to?