Lookin' for Adventure

As Christmas quickly approaches, the threshold for crazy seems to be ramping up around the Grant household. In earlier posts, I've talked about my desire to run the Disney World Half-Marathon in January of 2010. But over the past few weeks, I've struggled with pain in my left leg, very suspicious of a stress fracture in the making. I've taken the past three weeks off from running, and admittedly, my pain is better. So you'd think I have my answer, right? Right?! Well.


I've spent the past several days agonizing over whether to stick with my original plan versus waiting for the Disney Princess Half-Marathon in March. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages to both scenarios, and I've perseverated, as my husband would say, over all of it for some time now. I thought maybe another run (after my Xrays) would help me decide, especially since I was feeling better. Last Thursday evening, I set out on a 2-mile route, and I truly felt fine throughout the entire run. I did have some soreness the next day, which was more noticeable on our two hikes in the snow over the weekend. But it certainly seems manageable at this rate. And I had trained up to running between 9 and 10 miles really comfortably through the beginning of December. So it would seem that barring any other setback in terms of pain or traveling logistics, we may be inching toward the Magic Kingdom in early January after all. Who is typing all of this?!

The good news is, I'm certainly not the only lunatic in our little family. Erich has talked over the past several months about entering an amazing bike race in upstate New York in the spring of 2010. Ever since we first heard of the Tour of the Battenkill, we thought it would be such a cool race to see. And for Erich, the thought of entering the Pro-Am race was even more special. Essentially, the race organizers have successfully created an event designed to simulate the Classics races that take place in Europe every spring. Famous for its covered bridges, un pave' sections of gravel, and steep climbs, the Battenkill is just plain epic.

While Erich and many of his cycling buddies in the City Loop Mafia discussed entering the race together throughout the fall, the sign-up date of December 21 seemed to sneak up on all of us. In retrospect, I wonder if my deliberation over the Disney Half and Erich's decision about the Battenkill race sort of cancelled each other out, causing us both to give in? Either way, he pleasantly surprised me when he officially decided over this past weekend that he would train and enter the race. So by Monday night at 7:15pm (before either of us could change our minds), I had requested vacation time for the Disney Half-Marathon in January, and E had signed up as a Category 4 racer in the 2010 Tour of the Battenkill. Egads!

Who knows what will happen? What I think we both know is that we have some real challenges before us. These races won't be easy. The training required for the half-marathon has been tough up to the point of my injury, and Erich definitely has some long, hard days ahead of him on the bicycle. But it does feel good to have these goals - both of us setting out to do something far beyond what we've done to this point. And to be sure, there's some real fun to be had along the way! So after spending a wonderful holiday season with our family, our friends, and with each other, it will be, as they say, 'game on.' We're quickly moving toward 2010, happily lookin' for adventure...