My 2008 Calendar

Finally I rounded up my race schedule for 2008. Thanks to SoCal Ultraseries race menu, the planning process got pretty painless and straightforward :)

Orange Curtain 100k
16-Feb-08
This is going to be my very first 3-digit race – although it is “just” a 100k and not a real 100M. This distance is twice longer than anything I ever did before. On the other hand it is a race on a pretty flat course. Basically it is a 10 times out-and-back along a channel in Cerritos – 10 times 10k race. The cut off time for it is 13h but I hope to do it in 11h – did not I do High Desert 50k in 5:27? – and High Desert did have some moderate elevation gain… Another good thing about Orange Curtain is that there will be several other OCTR runners doing 100k this year – Eric, Kim, Kirk, Natalie – and I expect to have a lot of fun there – not just a bunch of new blisters :)

Leona Divide 50M
19-Apr-08
My first trail 50 miler… I heard it is a pretty mild course with 9000ft of elevation gain spread over multiple ups and downs (as opposed to some blood-sucking 5-mile-long uphills some oter races have) and a runner-friendly terrain.

Saddleback Memorial Half Marathon
26-May-08
Looking at the other races on my list you could ask what this one is doing in here. It is a road race, and just a half marathon, which is a way shorter than many of our training runs. But I have an emotional attachment to this particular event. It became the first running event in my life back in 2006. Plus my daughter Sophia was born in Saddleback hospital in 2005, and our windows were looking at the event’s starting line :)

Holcomb Valley 33M
8-Jun-08
This 50K race takes place at the Big Bear area. Not sure about the elevation profile of the course but you cannot expect to be flat in those mountains. The lowest point of the course is 6750ft at the Big Bear lake; the highest is 8212ft. One thing I can say for sure – the course should be extremely spectacular!

Mt. Disappointment 50M
9-Aug-08
This is going to be a killer race – my most challenging event for the whole 2008. But this time I will come a way more prepared than last year as I know the course now and will be specifically training for this race doing a lot of hill work.

Bulldog 50k Ultra (questionable…)
23-Aug-08
As much as I want to do Bulldog, I am not sure I will be able to do it just two weeks after Mt. Disappointment 50 miler. Although the recovery time is not as long as it used to be for me in the past and I feel less crippled after my races, I still doubt it is any reasonable to do these two races almost back to back.

Noble Canyon 50k
29-Sep-08
Just as Greg asked before he did it in 2007, am I noble enough to do it? And taking into consideration 10,317ft of overall elevation gain, is it going to be a trail race or a trail hike for me?

Twin Peaks 50k (postponed) (questionable…)
?-Nov-Dec-08
The race was initially scheduled for February 2, 2008 and got postponed after half of its trails got burned during Santiago wildfire. Jess is trying to get a new permit for it and at this point it is not clear whether this race can happen in 2008 at all.

High Desert 50k
7-Dec-08
Although it is always freezing in Ridgecrest in December – around 30F at the start line – I could hardly say no to it. The course is spectacular, the race is fun to run, there are too few races in December, and I want to beat my last year 5:27 time there!

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Besides that I hope I will have a chance to pace one of my buddies from our running club at one of the following races:

Angeles Crest 100
13-Sep-08
Angeles Crest is one of those heroic races I always wanted to get a glimpse of. As it is one of the most difficult 100 milers in US it is unlikely I will undertake anything like it before 2010 or 2011.

San Diego 100
20-Oct-08
San Diego might become my first 100 miler in 2009. So it would be cool to get a preview of it.