One of the difficult aspects of completing this challenge is managing all of the travel. Generally speaking, I work during the week and leave for the next race on Friday afternoon, after work, then rush to the expo to get my race packet, go get some dinner, then get some rest. Race time is most often 7:00am, race, then shower and then off to the airport Saturday afternoon... or around noon. If the race is on a Sunday, I have a more relaxing pre-race as I can leave Friday evening or Saturday morning and have plenty of time to get to the expo and not be in a rush. That is nice, but then it is a race to get back Sunday after the race so that I can be ready for work Monday morning. The difficulty is increased the longer the travel. Of course there is the time of travel, but the time change is also a difficulty. Getting a flight out to the "left coast" that meets my time frame and back is sometimes challenging. If I were to make a vacation out of these races it would be much easier and probably much more fun... but then I would be on vacation every month. .... hmmmm..... let me think about that..... just kidding. No one can afford to do that. Most of us need to go to work every once in a while.
So, I mention all of that because it sets up the reason I ran two races this month. I was teaching at The Kois Center in Seattle last week. The course was Monday - Friday and I wanted to find a race out there that I could run the Saturday/Sunday before or the Saturday/Sunday after the course and minimize my travel. I thought it would be nice to knock out Washington or maybe Oregon or California, or Nevada. As I was looking, I found a race in Washington -- The Rain Run, an easy Uber ride away from Seattle, and a new race in California -- The inaugural Vineyard Vines Half Marathon at Pebble Beach. I was trying to decide which one to do and noticed that one was the Saturday before and the other was the Saturday after. Perfect! I can run them both. ??? Can I run them both? I mean physically. Is that enough time to rest? Will I struggle? I thought maybe I could run one just to finish and one for time. Yeah, that's what I will do. I'll just relax and enjoy and not try to compete.... I can do that, right??
So, I decided to run them both. My training was no different with one exception. I set two new goals for 2018. One goal is to run at least one mile every day for the year. At least 365 days -- 2018 has exactly 365 days. And the second goal is to run at least 1000 miles in 2018. That is 2.74 miles per day on average. Neither of those are big goals, but it does mean that I don't get a rest day. Although 1 mile is hardly a workout unless I pick up my pace considerably. The other minor difference in my training for these races was the travel. 8-10 hours of travel tend to mess with your running schedule. Also running in different cities with different time zones can kinda mess with you a bit -- that is, you just have to plan for it and be dedicated to it.
I packed my bag for the trip. Keep in mind I had to work all week. I left for Washington on Friday after work, and returned after my second race, 8 days later. That makes 9 days of running, 5 days of working, 2 days of a half marathon, and 2 days of travel. I packed clothes for all of that into a carry-on and a back-pack. Two pairs of running shoes (I thought I would get my shoes soaked in The Rain Run, so I needed another pair), 5 dress/work shirts and pants, 11 pair of socks, 9 running shorts and shirts, and some walk-around clothes and some other stuff... all without checking a bag.
Anyway, The Rain Run.
Both of these races were smaller races. This one had 416 finishers. I will spare you all of the details of the logistics of these races. Most of you were probably bored to death by those details in my race recaps anyway. This one was cold and wet. It is scheduled in mid January in Redmond Washington for a reason. It is the rainy season. They expect and want it to rain. The tag line of this race was: We don't run from the rain, we run in the rain. I did not attend the pre-race pick-up, but picked-up my race packet the morning of the race. There was a pancake restaurant in the hotel parking lot. This was my pre-race dinner. Mmmmm.... 
My hotel was an 18 min walk to the race start/finish. I walked over, but they were not ready yet, so I waited in the cold and light drizzle -- more like a mist, for about 15 min. Then I still had about 45 min until the start and it was out in the middle of a park with no wind or rain cover, so I walked back to my hotel, dropped off my stuff, warmed up, dried off and rested. Then walked back again to the start.
I had about 32,000 steps by 11:00 -- the race started at 9:00am. The ground was wet and there were puddles, but there was very little rain. Mostly just a misting. I was very cold until mile 2. I wore my jacket from the Tulsa, Route 66 Half Marathon the whole race. It was an out and back race. The park trail was paved except at the start/finish, but the entire length of the race was on an open trail. That is to say that the general public was out running, biking, walking, walking their dogs, hanging out, etc. It wasn't a big deal, but there were a few times where we had to dodge some folks. There were three water stations, one at the half way turn around and the other two you could visit coming and going. There was no entertainment except for the occasional biker that would yell at the racers who were walking and running for "getting in their way". "ON YOUR LEFT, ON YOUR LEFT!!! YOU GOTTA MOVE OVER! ON YOUR LEFT!" That was fairly entertaining.
I raced pretty well. The last three miles were difficult and my split times were just over 8:00/mile. I was running 7:30-7:45/mile until then. All of the course info suggested the course was flat, and I overheard many of the runner saying how they liked how flat this course was. It did not seem so flat to me. There were not major hills, but lots of little rolling inclines.
BTW... This makes no sense to me. It was an out and back race on the same trail. The finish and the start were in the same place, so shouldn't this graph look like a mirror image with the turn around point in the middle? I don't get it. Either way, that does not look flat to me.
In all, it was a nice race. I got my medal, a blanket, an umbrella and a PR 1:42:09.
Vineyard Vines Half Marathon at Pebble Beach
The next Saturday was Pebble Beach. I worked all week -- ran every day, then flew out Friday evening to Monterey, CA. I arrived around midnight to my airbnb which was a guest house behind one of the houses on property. It was nice. $395 for a few hours and a shower, but much cheaper than the $500 per night hotel room. I have never been to Pebble Beach, so I was interested to see how it looked. I was in too late for packet pick-up, so I walked over the morning of the race. It was almost a 30 min walk from my house in the dark, and it was 42F. I brought my jacket and did not care if I had to throw it away later. I was not interested in freezing into an icicle. When I arrived at the hotel, the concierge greeted me and gave me all of the particulars. He informed me that I could relax and enjoy the hotel lobby and the very large fireplace and comfy chairs and he would either summon me a shuttle to the start or escort me to the walkway where some staff members would direct me through the golf course to the beach and the start. I elected to hang out and use the restroom... twice, enjoy the fire and be directed to the start. As I walked down, there were numerous staff members with flash lights directing a few of us along the path down to thee starting area.
The view of the clubhouse from the beach.
As I mentioned, this was a small race as well. There were 359 participants. It is a new race and they really only had a few months to advertise it. I would imagine it will become a bigger race, although I think they intend to cap the race at 1000.
I stood around shivering until the race start. They had an easy gear check, so I waited until the last minute to check my jacket in the bag they gave us instead of a shirt. and then went directly to the start and we started immediately at 7:15am. The scenery was very pretty. Running on 17 mile drive along the pacific ocean was quite scenic. The 42F was cold, but not too bad after a couple miles. If not for the wind off the ocean it would have been perfect. I raced pretty well. I attempted to stay 7:45/mile and under. There were some pretty steep hills. That slowed me down a bit, but I still kept my pace going fairly well.
I ended up with another PR 1:40:33 and because of the small race size, I finished first in my age group. 
There were no spectators, no entertainment, just the scenery and the course. There were four or so water stations and it was another out and back, so plenty of water and gatorade. It was nice and pretty. I enjoyed it, especially since I ran well.
Then, a 30 min walk back to my guest house, a shower and off the airport. A long day of travel home, then in the bed.
I do not think I would want to race every weekend, but I did not think this was too difficult. I see no reason I could not run more than one race per month. One week appeared to be enough rest.
Next race Austin Half Marathon Feb 18, 2018
I forgot to mention the after parties. The after party for the Rain Run consisted of cupcakes, chocolate milk, costco bananas and water. Then I left. (There may have been more, but I was cold and had a long walk back). I only ate one cupcake, 2 choco milks and a banana.
The after party for the Pebble Beach half was at the posh Spanish Bay Hotel. There was a buffet with champagne and waffles and bacon and eggs benedict and fruit and bagels and locks and soups and steak and salads and muffins and juice and juice and coffee and... you know... all of the stuff that you would generally pay like $40 for the buffet when you stay at the resort. I am PRETTY sure that I was supposed to have signed up for my participation for the buffet and pay a hefty fee, but as it turned out, they were announcing the awards for the 5k and 10k finishers and no one was around to tell me I could not participate, so, I had myself a little something to eat before I walked back to the guest house. It was merely average. FWIW.
I forgot to mention the after parties. The after party for the Rain Run consisted of cupcakes, chocolate milk, costco bananas and water. Then I left. (There may have been more, but I was cold and had a long walk back). I only ate one cupcake, 2 choco milks and a banana.
The after party for the Pebble Beach half was at the posh Spanish Bay Hotel. There was a buffet with champagne and waffles and bacon and eggs benedict and fruit and bagels and locks and soups and steak and salads and muffins and juice and juice and coffee and... you know... all of the stuff that you would generally pay like $40 for the buffet when you stay at the resort. I am PRETTY sure that I was supposed to have signed up for my participation for the buffet and pay a hefty fee, but as it turned out, they were announcing the awards for the 5k and 10k finishers and no one was around to tell me I could not participate, so, I had myself a little something to eat before I walked back to the guest house. It was merely average. FWIW.
