Five Must-Do Marathons

Not too much to update you on the swim, bike, run front. Training is moving along at the normal pace and I don’t have too many exciting stories to tell. My most recent long run was humbling thanks to some fairly serious stomach problems but I’ll attribute that to my reckless nutrition plan the day before.

Since I have this free day to write a semi-unrelated post, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about my future goal races. As I recently wrote, one of my (relatively) short term goals after my Ironman is to qualify for Boston. I’ve given myself a year and along the journey I expect to compete in more than a couple marathons before accomplishing the goal. Ideally, I can bang this out in my first try but realistically I’m estimating getting it done on my 3rd.

With that said, my eyes have recently gotten bigger and bigger with the idea of more marathons in my future so I’ve made a list of five races that I want to do before I die. Most, if not all, will be completed after 2011 but I thought this would be a fun post to keep my mind on training hard.

1. Boston Marathon – need I say more? The ultimate marathon, with plenty of memories from four years at Boston College and four Mondays watching thousands of runners struggle up heartbreak hill. Note: if and when I qualify, I will not be “racing” this. You better believe I’ll be stopping at BC for a beer or two.
    
2. Big Sur Marathon – tagged one of the most scenic marathons in the world, I had to put this on my list. If the reason I’m doing Coeur D’Alene IM in June is because of the scenic course, you know I can’t wait to race this one. Plus, I’ve been to the area a couple times and it’s without a doubt one of the most beautiful locations to host a marathon.
    
3. Twin Cities Marathon – going along with #2, the Twin Cities race is known for being the most scenic urban race in the US. Not to mention, my entire extended family is from Minneapolis and I have so many great memories from my childhood of summers spent in Minnesota.
    
4. New York City Marathon – I can’t hide my dislike for this huge city but it’s a marathon with plenty of energy. Hard to pass up running such a famous 26.
    
5. Napa Valley Marathon – wine, vineyards, wine, vineyards. ‘Nuff said.