After scoping out racing schedules and calendars for the next few months, I finally decided on some events and have registered for my next 4 races:

7/4 – Freedom Festival 5k
Running this one with the kids along the parade route. Should be a lot of fun!

7/7 – Leadville Trail Marathon
Not your typical marathon. Starts in Leadville at around 10,000′ and takes a combination of 4WD roads and some singletrack to top out at 13,188′ on Mosquito Pass before heading back to town. I don’t have the time to go through a taper and recovery cycle for this one, so the plan is to just take it as a training run and continue my buildup for Katcina Mosa and use it as a test to see how I respond to the high altitude.

8/4 – Katcina Mosa 100K
62 miles and 12,000 feet of climbing on some VERY rugged terrain. This is a giant loop in the canyons and on the mountains near where I grew up. I’m familiar with most of the route, though there are a few sections I haven’t seen before. I’ll definitely be doing a couple of lighter weeks to taper down for this one and will hopefully have a good solid run without having to dig too deep. It’ll be a long day – the race starts at 3:00 AM! Looking forward to running through the old stomping grounds. This race captured my attention last winter and became my long-term goal back then. I’ve had the course map set as my computer background since New Years Day.

9/28 – The Bear 100
Yikes. September sounds like a long way off. Really it’s only 3 months from now. 35 hour cutoff time. I’m hoping to complete it in under 30 hours. Dang, that sounds like such a loooooong time to be on the feet. I definitely need to toughen up – I’ve got some work to do in that department…