Warning: Crazy ahead!

“I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.”  -Waylon Jennings

When I lined up my race schedule for 2014, I decided to go way outside of my comfort zone and see just how far I could push myself.

I signed up for 14 halfs/fulls (twice as many long races as I’d ever done before in a single calendar year).

I challenged myself to PR in the marathon distance and break the 5-hour barrier. I PR’d at the LA Marathon, still working on the 5-hour barrier. My next chance is May 4th at the OC Marathon.

I challenged myself to run 3 marathons in 90 days to qualify as a double agent for the Marathon Maniacs. I’m one third of the way there and should become a M.M. come June 1st in San Diego.

I challenged myself to PR in the half marathon distance and break the 2-hour barrier. I’ve PR’d in my last two half marathons and am within striking distance (just over 3 minutes) of the 2-hour barrier.

Might be a busy day.

I did have one more personal challenge up my sleeve for 2014 and that was to run half marathons on back-to-back days. At first glance I saw the perfect opportunity in November to run the Santa Barbara Half Marathon on Saturday November 8th and the Malibu Half Marathon on November 9th. I was all set to register for both when I learned that Malibu had been moved to November 16th, the same day as the Las Vegas Half Marathon. So I was out of luck… or was I?

Nah, you can’t do two half marathons in one day… or can you?

Well, I did the math and even though Las Vegas is an evening race (starting at 4:30pm), it would probably be too tight schedule-wise to run Malibu in the morning (starting around 7am) and catch a flight to Las Vegas in time. If it was going to happen, the first race would have to be at the crack of dawn or even pre-dawn.

Anaheim in the “very AM.”

Guess it wasn’t going to happen.

(Cue Superhero Music)

And then the “House of the Mouse” (aka Disney) went ahead and announced the Avengers Superhero Half Marathon for November 16th, starting at 5:30am (or “Sparrow’s Fart” in the awesome Australian vernacular).

But surely I wasn’t going to pony up for yet another over-priced Disney race only two months after the Disneyland Half Marathon AND drive to the airport like a bat out of hell right after the race AND fly to another state simply for the chance to run two races in the same damn day. You’d have to be insane to do that.

Apparently I am that insane… last week I committed to both races (and booked hotels). And apparently I’m not alone as there are several Half Fanatics and ARC runners who are also going on this kooky quest.

Vegas in the PM.

Yup, there’s going to be a whole heap of “extra” crazy runners in Sin City come November 16th. My legs are sore just thinking about it.

I can only imagine how hard we’ll party after the race in Vegas… unless of course we all just collapse in our hotel rooms right after the race and sleep for 18 straight hours. Nah, I’ll sleep on the plane ride home.

Run on… and on again apparently!