Missed One & Mankato

I was double checking my plan for this year and realized that I had missed a marathon, I forgot all about it as last year was the first year. The race I missed is the St. Paul Urban Trail Marathon.

I clicked on the link and they haven't updated the registration page with this years race but since they added the date for 2014, it look like I have one more race to add. So that would mean 12 Minnesota outdoor marathons this year. I am little concerned though by the date as that might be the weekend we take our daughter back to school. Well, it's on my radar now, we will just have to wait and see if everything works out.

And for those thinking about running Mankato this fall (Oct. 19th), now is the time to sign up to save a few dollars as between now and the end of the month the marathon is $48, a 40% discount. After this signup period ends, the price keeps increasing until it hits the max of $85. So I will be signing up this week.

Oh, I should add some info for a couple of future posts, first, new shoes but these are road shoes (Pearl Izumi EM road H3's and New Balance 870v3), I have to admit it was weird to be looking at road shoes, somehow it just didn't feel right, now I just would like to see the snow melt off as the sloppy paths are a nuisance. And the other post will be a 2013 year in review summary which I am overdue to get out.

So stay tuned.

2014 Goals Confirmed

I haven't done a very good job of posting to my blog, I think it reflects that after the injuries a few years back I got off track and basically lost my motivation. I had met my goals up to a point and couldn't get my motivation up to push through the injuries to finish up my ultra goals. Now I think that had as much to do with work and other things but the bottom line is I wasn't putting in the time. It also had a lot to do with the concept of running 100 miles is still hard for me to comprehend, so this year I decided on a different approach. Not to resume my 50 state quest which may need to extend beyond age 60 but a much simpler goal.

So to help me out this year I set a conceptual easy goal, run all of the outdoor marathons in Minnesota. The easy part is getting done now, I have signed up for the first 5 (of 11) marathons. I signed up on 12/31 in order to save a few dollars but went ahead and signed up for Grandmas and Twin Cities. Grandma's price goes up at the end of January but by signing up in December we had the chance to win a free hotel for this year's race. Well no notification thus far so it probably isn't going to happen. For Twin Cities, I wanted to do the Ultra Loony Challenge so decided to ahead and sign up in case it fills up quickly (it's limited to the first 500), so I went ahead and signed up for that. For those not familiar with the Loony Challenge, it just means I am going to run the 5k and 10k the day before the marathon, kind of a Minnesota version of the Goofy for Disney.

So as of today, I have signed up for the following events:

Date	Event
04/26/14	Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes
05/10/14	Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon
05/25/14	Med-City Marathon
06/21/14	Grandmas Marathon
10/05/14	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon

I will probably sign up for the Minneapolis Marathon next followed by Mankato when registration opens on January 20th, Moose Mountain after registration opens on March 15th, then Walker before April 1st, Bemidji before May 1st and whenever Eugene Curnow opens I will sign up for it.

Beyond the 11 marathons I am sure we will do the annual Gobble Gait run on Thanksgiving and I am faily sure I will do something at Surf the Murph and maybe run the 25k or volunteer again at Afton. I may not get in a new state this year but that's ok as I still have a lot of fun races to do.

Since the commitment to enter races is underway, it's time for my commitment to training to begin as well. I have a lot of runs and a few pounds to lose before the end of April gets here. The good news is regardless of my outside distractions I am looking forward to the training for the first time in years.

Should be a fun year.

2014 Race Schedule

Well I have given it a bit more thought and I think I am ready to commit, I checked with Karyn on our run this morning and she was ok with it and thought it sounded like a fun goal, so here goes, this is my 2014 race schedule:

Date	Event	Days between
01/12/14	Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor MarathonZoom!	50
04/26/14	Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes	104
05/10/14	Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon	14
05/25/14	Med-City Marathon	15
06/01/14	Minneapolis Marathon	7
06/21/14	Grandmas Marathon	20
07/12/14	Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon	21
09/06/14	Moose Mountain Marathon	56
09/20/14	Walker/North Country Races	14
10/05/14	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon	15
10/11/14	Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon	6
10/19/14	Mankato Marathon	8
10/26/14	Surf the Murph 50k	7

I like it, run every outdoor Minnesota marathon in the same year and if I add in the 50k at Surf the Murph it will also move me up a level in the Maniacs from gold to:

IRIDIUM LEVEL

4 Marathons in 23 days.

I really like it.

And I have decided to go ahead and submit my entry for the Zoom! Yah! Yah! which if I get into it, would get me every Minnesota marathon be it indoor and outdoor in the same calendar year but I will be on the wait list and probably won't get in but at least I have tried. If it doesn't work out that's ok as I am not in even marginal marathon shape and if it does, well it's 49 days away so that will force me out the door as the winter descends which is the motivation I need. If I don't get in though I will try for the 2015 event as that would get me all of the marathons in a year time period.

So to sum it up, I really like the race schedule as I needed a new challenge in my running. My thinking is running the roads for a year will get me healthy and then in 2015 I can either resume my 50 state quest or head back to doing ultras or both ;-).

Running Shoe Companies

Those that know me, know I love my running shoes and I do have a lot of pairs of shoes in my current rotation. I am running in Skechers, Altras, Sauconys, Brooks, New Balance, Merrell, Inov-8s, Vibram FiveFingers and my most recent acquisition Hoka Mafate 3's. More on all of these later. This post is about the shoe companies, no not the names above but the real owners.

Take Hokas, they were acquired by Deckers Outdoors, they also own Teva and UGG's. You can read more if you like at Runners World or Competitor.

What about my Brooks shoes? Brooks owns Brooks right, wrong, Brooks is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Per the wikipedia post they were acquired first by Russell in 2004 and then Berkshire in 2006. Interesting, I guess Warren Buffett must be a runner at heart.

Ok what about Altras? They are a start up right and owned by the founders, right? Wrong, again per wikipedia they were acquired by Icon Health & Fitness in 2011, funny I have never heard them mention this. Oh well. Still good shoes.

And Skechers? Hey again in reading their history, they appear to be owned by their founders still. Oh by the way I do like their shoes. I found I really like the bionic trails but not for long trail runs. They don't offer me quite enough protection.for runs longer than 10 miles, it's more my issue than theirs, more about this later.

New Balance? They appear to be their own company and still make some of their shoes in the US and some in the UK, checkout Wikipedia for more info, so if buying American is your preference then they are your best choice.

Next up, Saucony? Although they were acquired by StrideRite (makers of Keds), per Wikipedia they are now owned by Wolverine World Wde. Think Wolverine boots and Hush Puppies and a few others.

Oh did I mention a few others, well guess who owns Merrell's? That's right Wolverine World Wide. Although (again per wikipedia) to be technically accurate they are a wholly owned subsidiary

Next up, Inov-8? It appears they are owned by Inov-8. They are a UK based company and I have found that they make some of the best trail shoes out there.

And Vibram FiveFingers, it appears they are still owned by Vibram and of all my shoes I have neglected these most of all.

Did I mention that Montrail is owned by Columbia SportsWear, Vasque is owned by Red Wing Shoes, Pearl Izumi is a subsidiary of Shimano (think cycling), Newton owns Newton but they did try to sell their technology to Nike, Saucony and Adidas but were turned down so they started their own company. And last but not least I think Nike owns Nike and Adidas owns Adidas and Asics owns Asics, I think that covers the brands I normally think about.

So does any of this matter, no but I found it interesting and I thought a few others might too.