Plan now for event season

Photo by shadowkill at stock.xchg

Spring and summer certainly seem like a long ways away as the thermometer dances below freezing (or far below in the case of last week), snow or flurries are almost always in the forecast, and my current idea of a distance workout at the moment is seeing how long I can tolerate the treadmill or Spinning on Sunday mornings for two hours. But even with the warm temps only looming in the distance, the height of the event season will be here before we know it. And while it hurts to put a pinch on the wallet, now's the time to sit down to plan out the race calendar before the races fill up or the fees increase.

What races are some of the must-dos for the season ahead? Or what's happening close to home and fits into the schedule? I've called myself the walking calendar of events at times, once I hit an event I somehow manage to remember it year after year, usually to make sure I sign up for it again, or if it's really bad to remind myself to find a different event for that particular weekend. In between arguing over the dates and distances of the Lakefront 10 and the Soldier Field 10 and providing a list of spring marathons and half marathons to a friend, I thought dissecting the race calendar might be in order. So stay tuned in the coming days for a tour around the Midwest--plus a smattering of destination races--divided up by race distance or sport. Posted by Kate