Good Riddance

Happy New Year. 2008 was OK as far as school and running went, but it was lame as far as hiking. I enjoyed the last two semesters of grad school more than any of the previous four, but my summer and winter breaks contained no hikes longer than a hundred miles and therefore kind of sucked. I can think of only 13 nights I spent outside in 2008, while 2007 had 178 in a row, plus I was living abroad for the first 58 days of the year. However, I did finally pass my second field exam and thus got my master's degree, and I did run more races than I've ever done before: five 50K's, two 50-milers, and a 24-hour (not to mention stuff on my own: fast-packing the WS course and running to Diablo and back twice).

I set four big goals after finishing the CDT; I completed two: running Diablo fast and passing the Law & Econ field exam. I didn't run St. George fast, nor did I even enter the race, because I've decided I don't like running on roads, nor do I have a date set for my oral exams. That is (or rather, should be) my number one priority right now.

As far as races go, I've got a list of those I want to run in '09:
Sequoia 50K, Feb 28
Pirates Cove 50K, Mar 21
Diablo 50-Miler, Apr 19
Miwok 100K, May 2
Lake Merritt 12-hour, Jun 13
San Juan Solstice 50-miler, Jun 20
Hard Rock 100, July 10
Sequoia 50K, Jul 18
Headlands Hundred, Aug 8
Redwood 50K, Sep 5
Wasatch 100, Sep 11
Firetrails 50, Oct 10
SF One-Day, Oct 24
Stinson Beach 50K, Nov 14
Muir Beach 50K, Dec ?
Rodeo Beach 50K, Dec ?

Obviously there are some issues, namely: Is two weeks between Diablo and Miwok OK? Is three weeks between San Juan and Hard Rock OK, or actually just perfect? Will they even let me into Hard Rock since the only 100 I did was in '06? How the hell am I supposed to get a copy of the September '06 issue of Ultra Running magazine to prove that I did in fact run said 100? Could I really run Wasatch in September once school's started? Do I really want to go to Utah? How boring did I really think Firetrails was?

There's also the fact that I would really, really like to do a big trip in summer '09, which would obviously interfere with some of the races. I try not to think about that too much (Bike x-country? PCT for speed? Indonesia? AZ-UT-ID?) because I don't know what will be going on with work/school (GAO? Seminar in Uganda? Nothing because it's only two months without pay so I'll totally be able to afford to go jobless?) What I dream will happen is that I'll pass orals right around the the end of May, come up with a plan from scratch the next day, start hiking the day after that, and finish up the day before Fall semester starts. We'll see.