Beach Cities Challenge

I read about this back when signing up for the Long Beach half marathon, and I ran across it again tonight.  The Beach Cities Challenge involves running any combination of half or full marathons in Long Beach, Huntington Beach (Surf City half/full), and the OC half/full.  You get a special Beach Cities Challenge Medal if you do all three consecutively, starting with any of the three.  That means that after I run the LB half this Sunday, if I run the Surf City (probably the half) on February 5th (happy 1 year of being engaged!) and the OC (possibly the full?) on May 6th, I'll get the cool medal.

I'm strongly considering it.  Yes, it costs money, but it still costs far less than ballet, even when you factor in clothes and replacing your shoes.  And, I've come to LOVE running.  Yeah, some mornings at 4:30 I'm not really in the mood, but that always goes away and is more often the result of it being a work day than it being 4:30 in the morning.

It would be such an accomplishment - complete 2 halfs and a full (or maybe 3 halfs depending on how things go) less than a year after starting to run.

The final of the three, on May 6th, is more than 6 weeks before our wedding, so if God forbid I get injured at least I'll have time to heal before walking down the aisle.  :)

I think I'll wait until Sunday to decide.  Early registration for the OC Marathon ends tomorrow, but they will also be offering it at their booth at LB on Sunday.  That's the one I would try for the full in if I'm going to try a full, but I can't just decide that on a whim.  Training for a half has been totally manageable, and even though I would do another half before this full, training for a full requires a ton more time and morning runs would not be as easy.

I'll have to think about it.

But it would be so damn cool.