Today after my WD50K running partner signed up for Zumbro 50, I decided it was time to register for my new spring goal race, Chippewa Moraine 50K.

This will be my first out of state race (but will actually be closer than Zumbro), and will be the first race where I’ll be legitimately chasing cutoffs. The cutoff is 9 hours, with an intermediate cutoff of 4 hours at the turnaround. That means I need to run the first 25K in 4 hours. When I raced Superior 25K last May, I finished that in 4:51. So uhhh… there’s work to do.

It’s not really as bad as all that. During Zumbro 17, I probably ran 25K about half an hour faster than that. (It’s hard to tell, my GPS data was off and added about a mile extra.) And I’m a better runner now than I was then. Probably. Definitely. I just have to run the first 25K at a pace of 15:27 or faster. If the course isn’t extremely challenging, I can do that. And if the course is extremely challenging, maybe I won’t do it, and maybe I’ll get swept.

This had to immediately be elevated to goal race status, due to the length as well as the cutoff issue. Superior 25K is still somewhat of a goal race, since I really want to get redemption on that darn course, but since it is less than a month after CM50K and I’ll be running Be The Match the weekend before, I’m not going to be at peak fitness. (I also may or may not do a timed race in June. We’ll see.)

I’m pretty excited for this race, and to take a risk. One of my racing goals for the year (which I haven’t spelled out yet) is to run a race where I have a chance to DNF. Even though I don’t think I’m really at that point with this race, I don’t know the course and I could underestimate the toll that it takes on me (it sounds like it’s a bit technical and has lots of little hills), the cut-off is still an hour and 20-some minutes faster than my current 50K PR. And my training has not been superb, though I still have 12 weeks (11.5 at this writing, I guess) to go.

My spring race calendar is now:
4/29: Chippewa Moraine 50K
5/13: Be the Match Minneapolis 5K
5/20: Superior 25K

I might add a race in March while I am down in the Twin Cities, simply because I’m bored of not racing and apparently just want to spend lots of money, and also I guess to gauge my fitness.