My Summer Event Will be the Seattle Half Marathon!

If you followed my three clues, you know this by now. Well, you knew it would be the Seattle Marathon or Half Marathon. I am picking the half again, at least at this point in time.

It was a tough choice. The Lake Tahoe Century Ride, “America’s Most Beautiful Bike Race,” was really tempting. First, it would have had me doing something totally different. Second, my good friend Susan is the coach, and it would have been great to train with and learn from her. Third, it is a small team and thus they need more people. Fourth, fellow blogger Susie would have been my mentor, and it would have been fun to train with her. And fifth, my mentee from last year in Nashville, Nicole, just joined the cycle team. I learned that just the other day, and it would be so cool to do another event with her – she is such a wonderfully enthusiastic person.

One problem is that I don’t have a bike, rumors to the contrary. I could buy one, but this is not the best time for me to do that. Plus, I am concerned about fundraising. Once I start this thing, once I get my first few donations, I am seeing it through to the end. The fundraising minimum is about $4,700 I think, and the economy still stinks. If I can’t raise the minimum, I have to meet the difference myself. While I don’t expect that to happen, if it does, I am going to need the $1,000 or so I would spend for a bike and all the associated stuff to put in the fundraising pot.

But I think that the biggest single reason I selected this event is that I have never been to Seattle or to the Pacific Northwest. When I first learned last August that this event was on the 2010 list and that the Philadelphia triathlon was not, I was immediately intrigued and tempted. I love the outdoors, and late June in Northwest Washington has got to have a few places to see before or after the race for a few days.

Now all that being said, I am going to do a triathlon or century ride in 2011. And the only way for that to happen is for me to get a damned bike this year. If I wait till next year, the same thing will happen. So I am saving my pennies, and once it is clear I am not going to have to supplement my fundraising for Seattle, then I am getting a bike, and finding some people who like to ride and can show me the ropes. Plus I need to swim better – a lot better – to consider a triathlon next year. You will see that I was already thinking about this with my New Year’s resolutions. Now it is time to make it happen.

But for now, it is time to be happy about being back on the Team and heading to Seattle in five months, and to start working hard fundraising and training to make it all happen!