The Races are Here, The Races are Here

This weekend begins the four week marathon of major events. Sunday is the Green Bay half-marathon. The weather looks promising, meaning there is no rain in the forecast. The past two years have been brutal with a solid downpour one year and overnight downpours followed by stifling heat the other. This year has to chance to be absolutely perfect.

It is a great race, counted as one of the top ten U.S. races. All runners run the Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers, just before the finish. And it has to be the only marathon with brats and beer as part of the post-race festivities. There's nothing quite like running 13 or 26 miles and finishing up with a beer.

Next weekend isn't a race day, and has its own challenges. The pastor of my church will be at a training session, and I will be leading the Sunday service. If you ever want to better appreciate your pastors, stand in the pulpit and give a sermon sometime. I've led several services, and each one is nerve-wracking. There are two good things. First, the congregation can't fire me. Second, there haven't been any major uprisings in the past, so I can hope they are getting something from my messages.

In just two weeks, I make my debut as a triathlete at the Trinity Triathlon. Thanks to several people out there, the odds of my drowning have been greatly reduced. And once I'm out of the water, things will improve greatly. I'm far more at home in events where breathing isn't such an involved process. Something about roll to the air and breathe just doesn't cover the complexities of breathing while doing the forward crawl.

The week after the triathlon is the Bellin 10K race. I will be racing with my company's team as part of a corporate challenge. Like myself, our team has no misconceptions about our ability. We are a bunch of mid-pack runners and just do this for the fun. The Bellin is a well established and fairly well run local event that attracts some big-name elite runners.

So, the next month promises to be busy. There will be lots of minor accomplishments and a fair amount of fun. Once this stretch is over, there will be two goals on the horizon. The Fox Cities Marathon in September and an as yet unnamed Olympic distance triathlon in the next year. Future races are a great source of motivation. Especially when the money has already been paid.

Good luck to all of you with races this weekend!