My Goals for 2020

I usually set goals for individual races, but I also set long-term goals.  Here are some of my goals for 2020.  Some are things I want to focus on this year, while others are multi-year goals, where I’m just hoping to make progress this year.

Run Marathons or Ultras in 50 Countries

In 2019, I really emphasized international races.  I ran marathons in nine new countries, bringing my lifetime total to 41 countries.  If I can do that again, I’ll raise my lifetime total to 50 countries.

A year ago, I didn’t know what my long-term goal was.  I just wanted to visit more of the places on my bucket list.  Now that 50 countries is an attainable goal, that seems like a nice round number.  The first multi-year goal I had was to run marathons in all 50 states.  Now I’m doing the international version.

A big difference of course, is that the US only has 50 states.  Once you’ve done 50, you’ve done them all.  It’s not practical to run marathons in every country of the world.  First, there are about 200 of them.  Second, some are hard to get to, or are unsafe.  Finally, they don’t all have organized races.  There’s a guy who has run 26.2 miles in every country, but in many of them it wasn’t a race.  He just ran on his own.  That’s not the same thing.

I belong to two clubs that are all about running marathons in different countries.  Each has rules regarding what counts as an official marathon.  They also each have their own list of what countries they recognize.  Defining what is or isn’t a “country” is more complicated than it sounds.

Several people in these clubs have set a goal of 100 countries.  Some have already done it.  At least one has run marathons in more than 180 countries.  I’m not that ambitious.  At some point, you have to start traveling to countries that aren’t as developed, aren’t as safe, or don’t have good transportation infrastructures.  It also gets increasingly expensive.  If I could spread that expense out over a lifetime, it would be feasible.  I’m already 58, and I don’t know how long I’ll be healthy enough to do this.

For now, I’m focusing on getting to 50.  That’s within reach.  After that, I’ll still travel to other countries to run marathons, but I won’t be as focused on the numbers.  I’ll visit places that sound interesting, and I’ll seek out unique marathon experiences, but I probably won’t do as many international trips per year.  This will probably be my last really big year for international travel.

Finish All the Minnesota Marathons (Again)

Last year, I finished a long-term goal of running (or walking) every marathon in Minnesota.  Why is this on my list again?  There are new ones.  I knew that would happen.  On average, there’s one new marathon in Minnesota each year.  This year, there are at least two.

I ran a four day series of trail marathons last year called the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series.  This series was organized by Mainly Marathons, which is owned by two brothers from Minnesota.  On the last day of the series, they had a party where they announced that the series would expand to six races in 2020.

I assumed that meant I would need to do the two new races in the series.  It turns out to be more complicated than that.  It’s not exactly clear which two races are the new ones.  Three of the races will be at new values, and three will be at existing venues.  The entire series has been renamed, “Summer Camp,” and has been moved from July to September.  Even the races at the same venues have been rearranged.  For example, day three of the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series was held at Bend in the River Regional Park, and it was called Viking Voyage.  It’s still called Viking Voyage, and it’s still the same course, but now it’s day six of the Summer Camp Series.  Is that the same race, or is it a new race?  At a minimum, it seems like I need to do three races of this series.  I haven’t decided if need to do all six.

The confusion doesn’t stop there.  Mainly Marathons has a Heartland Series that includes races in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.  The Minnesota race in this series used to be held in Albert Lea.  Now it’s held in St. Cloud.  That’s convenient for people doing the Summer Camp Series, since that series starts the next day, and those races are also in the St. Cloud Area.  It’s not unusual for established races to have new courses, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a different race.  When I ran the Seattle Marathon in 2013, it was a completely different course than when I ran it in 1990, but it’s still the Seattle Marathon.  In the case of Heartland Series, Day 7, they not only changed the course, but moved it to a different city that’s 160 miles away.  Is it the same race or a different race?  If I run the Summer Camp Series this year, I might as well do this one too, since I’m already going to be in St. Cloud.

Finally, there’s Prairie Series, Day 2.  The Prairie Series includes races in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri.  The first two races in this series are held on the same course, which starts in North Dakota and finishes in Minnesota.  Most people consider day 1 to be the Minnesota race and day 2 to be the North Dakota race, but either of these races could be counted for either state.  I’ve done Prairie Series Day 1.  Do I need to do Prairie Series Day 2 as well, since it could be counted for Minnesota?

Run My 400th Marathon or Ultra

This isn’t so much a goal as a milestone.  I’ve already run 398 marathons or ultras, so it’s inevitable that I was going to hit 400 this year.  I’m planning to do my 400th at the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA.  That’s one of my favorite races, and I know I’ll see lots of friends there.  The only thing hard about this goal is limiting myself to only one marathon in January, since this race is the first weekend in February.

If you’re going to be at the Surf City Marathon in February, you can celebrate with me.  This is the race that always has the cool surfboard medals.

Run a Quadzilla in At Least One More State

When you run marathons on four consecutive days, it’s called a quadzilla.  That term was coined by runners who ran the Tahoe Triple and then ran another marathon the next day to make it four in a row.  I wrote a post a week ago that talked about running quadzillas in as many states as possible.  When I ran four days of the Savage Seven, it gave me a quadzilla in Florida.  That was the sixth state where I ran a quadzilla.  I’d like to add at least one more state in 2020.  The leading candidate is the Mainly Marathons Alaska Series.  The Texas Quadzilla is another candidate.

Make Progress on My Fourth (and Fifth) Circuits of 50 States

I need 17 more states to complete my fourth circuit of marathons or ultras in all 50 states.  After that, I’ll need 28 states to complete my fifth circuit.  I won’t finish either of these goals this year, but I’d like to make some progress.  For now, getting to 50 countries is more important.  Maybe next year, finishing my fourth circuit will become a higher priority.

Keep the Weight Off

From 2006 through 2014, I did a good job of maintaining a lean weight, and those were years when I also ran well.  I sometimes gained a few pounds, but I never let my weight creep up too much before getting serious about my diet.  In 2015, I had some injuries.  I kept racing, but I couldn’t keep up my training.  Without that daily exercise, I couldn’t maintain my weight.  When I didn’t feel like I had a fighting chance, I also couldn’t find the motivation to stick to a diet.  I just threw in the towel.

For the last few years, I did my best to train, but I was handicapping myself by carrying an extra five to ten pounds.  In 2017, when I was doing crazy amounts of walking mileage (up to 140 miles per week), I was able to lose the weight without even trying.  Then I got complacent.  When I was no longer putting in the miles, I failed to adjust my eating habits, and I let my weight creep up again.  A year ago, I was carrying an extra 15 pounds.

By increasing my mileage and keeping track of everything I ate, I was finally able to gradually lose the weight.  For the first time in years, I reached my “racing weight.”  I also brought my marathon times down.  That’s no coincidence.  All other things being equal, carrying extra weight slows you down.

I’m pretty good about sticking to a diet when I’m home, but I go off my diet when I travel.  I also don’t get as much daily exercise.  I tend to gain weight on trips and lose weight when I’m home.  Most of the time, that works out OK.  In November, I was away from home for almost three weeks and I gained three pounds.  With the holidays, I never lost that weight.  Then, on my recent trip to Florida, I gained two more pounds, despite running four marathons.  Now I need to lose five pounds to get back to my “racing weight.”

One of my goals for this year is to lose those five pounds and keep them off.  I don’t want to get complacent about my weight again.

Keep Up My Mileage

In 2019, I fell short of a goal to do more walking mileage, but I did pretty good with my running mileage.  It took me until the summer to ramp up, but since then I’ve run at least 50 miles per week and at least 250 miles per month.  Despite a slow start, I ran 2,888 miles last year, which was a personal best.

This year, I’d like to keep that going.  With travel, it might not be possible to run 50 or more miles every week, but I’d like to at least keep up the streak of running 250 miles every month.  If I do that, I’ll run more than 3,000 miles this year.  With that kind of base, I should be able to keep improving my marathon times.  It’ll also make it easier to control my weight.

I need to be smart about it, though.  I need to listen to my body and be willing to take a rest day, when necessary, so I don’t develop any injuries.