Today's minor obsession...

While looking for marathons in Montana for next year on the Running In The USA calendar, I saw a reference to the "Center of the Nation Series" half marathon in September... And discovered this:

5 Days, 5 Marathons, 5 States?!?  Um, wow. I was hoping to pick up five states next year... so perhaps this Center of the Nation Series is the way to go... I haven't run in any of those states yet...

Of course, me being me, I had to start thinking about logistics. Fly into Rapid City and rent an RV? (A weird little dream of mine is to rent an RV... ). Fly into Rapid City and rent a car and stay in motels?

And then it hit me... ROAD TRIP. I mean, if the first race is on the Monday morning, leaving Seattle on the Friday evening would give us PLENTY OF TIME to drive across. And with the last race being on Friday morning, that would give us PLENTY OF TIME to drive back from Nebraska. Perhaps even to drive through Yellowstone.

In other news, I had been toying with the idea of running the Yukon Do It Half Marathon on my birthday... but admittedly I didn't want to pay $70 (with tax and fees) to run it. Plus getting to Port Orchard early in the morning, etc. etc.

And then I found this cute little race:

It's unsupported essentially -- we'll have to carry our own water. But it is timed, so that works for me. Plus it starts at Green Lake, runs down to the Burke-Gilman, out to Golden Gardens, and back. It's not that different to what we would have run on our own -- so it's perfect!

Now I just need to plan runs for the weekend of the 8th, the 15th, and the 22nd. Oh, and the 5th of January. I do have some ideas for runs I'd like to do:

- a track half marathon. I have no idea why I want to do this, but I do.
- a million inch run -- 15.8 miles. It would be a little weird if I didn't hit this goal, right?
- a run to downtown and back -- I've missed doing this route for a while!
- one last Green Lake half?