I hadn’t planned on doing any summer racing but my running group advertised a popular trail run that many said they were participating in.

So I’ve never done an actual trail race.

And I’ve never raced at night.

Totally seems like a good idea to do both for the first time together, right?

The race is put on by Jamil Coury, the guy I wrote about a few weeks ago who did the Barkley Marathon. He founded Aravaipa Running and I’ve heard nothing but good things about their races. I’m super excited to finally have a chance at participating in one.

I’m pretty excited about it actually. Nervous too, but definitely more excited. There’s a 10k, a 27k, and a 64k option and I decided to go with the 27k. AZTNT, my running group, has a ton of people signed up for it so it’s going to be a great time running with friends. I don’t have any goals or expectations with it; I just plan on enjoying myself doing something different.

I feel like I need things to look forward to to kinda help the days go by. With this 100 Days of No Soda starting, I’m going to need all the motivation I can get. I plan on also looking around for a 4th of July run. August will be plenty busy with me going back to work (this news will be elaborated on in a later post 🙂 ) and once fall gets here, race season comes with it full throttle.

But for now, this trail race in a couple of weeks has me counting the days. I’ve got my head lamp ready and we’ll just see what happens!

–Have you ran a race a night? What tips can you give me?

–Do you schedule races to have something to look forward to? What’s the method behind your planning, if any?

Have a great weekend! Tomorrow’s the last day to think of something for the 100 Days of Summer Challenge! Keep me company (and help hold me accountable) as I try to go without soda 🙂

The challenge starts June 1st and ends September 8th. Click here for details.