How does one keep running, week after week? By always having a goal in mind, of course! Well, this might not be necessary for me anymore… now that the winter is finally over, running has become quite enjoyable and I hardly need an excuse. But knowing that I have a race coming up helps me push just a bit harder.

My current goal is the Calgary Marathon on May 29th. I actually registered for it in January but did not tell anyone until this week, because I didn't want people to think that I was crazy. Am I? Well, even last year I was doing some 30+ km training runs to test myself on marathon-like distances, so I'm not exactly going into this cold.

I was worried that I would become injured during my training or my half-marathon, but fortunately I'm still running pain-free. Much better than last year when I had several minor injuries. Let's go through the list: 1) Shin splints soon after I first began running, these can be very dangerous but new shoes and reduced training fixed them. 2) A pulled calf muscle, which righted itself after 6 weeks of reduced training. 3) Iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS), which is more of an inflammation than an injury i.e. not very dangerous but incredibly painful.

So what about injuries this year? Nada. So I must be doing something right. It's time to step up to the next challenge!