Georgia on my mind

When someone’s birthday ends in a zero, whether it’s their 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th or beyond, they usually celebrate the occasion either with a big party or a night on the town or by doing something else extravagant.

I already know what I’ll be doing for my 40th birthday on March 21 -- I’ll be heading to Atlanta to run in the ING Georgia Marathon.

This week, I toured cyberspace and made visits to coolrunning.com, hitekracing.com, and a few other web sites to find some races that will help get me ready for the Boston Marathon. I had my sights set on the Eastern States 20-Miler at the end of March as my final 20-miler before Boston, but my wife Bozena had the wild notion of flying away to somewhere warm on the week of my birthday and starting the week with a big race. Los Angeles was an option, especially since the marathon also fell on my birthday, but I’d rather settle for a shorter flight. Besides, I’ve never been to Georgia and the Florida panhandle’s just a drive down the road.

Some runners may find it crazy to run marathons on consecutive months -- and others may think it’s no big deal -- but I’m only doing this as a training run, so don’t expect anything in the neighborhood of 4:00 from me! I took a virtual tour of the course and there’s really a lot of historical things to check out, such as the house where Dr. Martin Luther King was born. There’s also some rolling hills to contend with, so I should get a good workout along the way!

I also registered for the Stu’s 30K on March 7 in Clinton, Mass., which is a great prep race for a marathon and features a difficult rolling course around Wachusett Reservoir. And in February, I could be running in the following:

-- Feb. 13, Martha’s Vineyard 20-Miler. I’m 50/50 on this race, probably because of the 45-minute ferry ride and the potential for having a good puke or two before the race. But I’ve heard very good things about the race, from the mostly-flat course to the post-race chowder and minestrone soup.

-- Feb. 21, Old Fashioned 10-Miler in Foxboro, Mass. or the Half on the Hamptons. Tough call here. I did the 10-Miler last year and really enjoyed the race, but I’ve seen the web site for the Hampton Beach race and that looks promising. From the race to the post-race festivities, it would be a great way to spend a day.
The Foxboro race may end up being my choice for the day because it’s a 20-25 minute drive there and I just found out that they are looking for runners to donate old race t-shirts to the race organizers so they can pass them on to some local shelters and community-based programs. I have a ton of t-shirts that I never wore and they are taking up a huge clump of space in my closet, so this would be a good chance to get rid of them.

-- Feb. 27, Colchester Half Marathon in Connecticut. I ran this race last year and the odds are very, very good that I’ll be back for it. And I know a lot of runners are going to Hyannis that weekend to run in either the marathon or half, but I think I’d rather take the road to be less traveled and the shorter drive to Connecticut.
This race is by far the toughest half marathon I have ever run, a lot tougher than what Hyannis has to offer! This was the only time I ever finished a half in over two hours (2:05), and for good reason. The start of the race is a slight uphill, the final mile or two is a giant uphill, and there are so many uphills in between that you swear that there’s no downhills. And the race director seemed to pop up on the tougher stretches of the course and offer some high-fives and laughs to the runners, so that was cool to see.