2010…let’s do it!

I’m really looking forward to this year and I’m sure I’ll make it a good one. I started last year on a drip in ER with a severe stomach bug. Later that New Year’s Day we heard my brother-in-law lost his two year battle against cancer so the year didn’t start great at all. This year started well with a 10km run and me feeling extremely good.

So what are the running plans for 2010? I suppose the main event will definitely be the 89km Comrades marathon on 30 May, but I’ve got a lot of goals to reach before I get there. The first challenge for me is to qualify. That means running a marathon in less than 5 hours by 26 April, the cutoff date for qualifying this year. I’ll probably qualify in March at either the Vaal marathon on 7 March or maybe the Elands Valley marathon on 20 March. Maybe I’ll run both these marathons, I’ll decide this during February.

The goal for January is to run about 300km and do the Dischem half marathon on the 17th. This will be a good race to run to become accustomed to large crowds. Comrades this year will be a crowded affair.

In February I’ll move up to 32km and run the Striders and the Bronkhorstspruit 32km races. That should get me ready for the marathon challenge in March. If I feel up to it and qualify as planned I’ll also run the Bruce Fordyce 50km at Suikerbosrand on 28 March.

From there it’s a few long runs in April. I won’t be going to Two Oceans and will do something like the Randburg Easter 100 that weekend. Anyway, this will be around 100km for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Easter weekend. The rest of April will include the 50km Loskop marathon and maybe the Slowmag marathon (42.2km).

At the beginning of May I want to run the RAC long run (60km) and then start tapering off to the big 89km run on 30May.

That’s a lot of running and will be about 1500km at the end of May. I’m aiming to run 3000km for 2010. The second half of the year I plan to run the Rustenburg 25km Mountain race. I love this race and this year it falls on my birthday so no excuses! Then there’s the 50km Mont-Aux-Sources challenge in September and maybe a 100km race in October. I don’t want to plan so far ahead and will take it all as it comes. Another standard marathon in November and then ease off into December and 2011…

Let's do it!