At the start of January I said that one of my goals for 2014 was to to run multiple races. And with that little resolution, I’ve created a bit of a monster. I’ve decided that if I’m going to be in a different city for any reason, I’ll see if I can hunt down a race to run.

Here are theraces on my radar for the upcoming year:

Races I’ve already thrown my money at and will be participating in:

Name: KELLY St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock 5k Date: March 16, 2014 Location: Baltimore, Maryland What I’m Looking Forward To: My first race outside of Canada (and my second race ever!). I get to run it with a really good friend of mine who lives in Baltimore (and who I’ll be staying with!) St. Patrick’s Day is one of my favourite “holidays” (along with Halloween) so I’m excited to go overboard with a green running outfit. (It’s the little things. 😉 ) There’s free beer for runners after the race and live music – you really can’t beat that!

Name: NYCRuns Spring Fling (10k) Date: March 22, 2014 Location: New York City, New York What I’m Looking Forward To: I’ve never been on Roosevelt Island – I’ll be interested to find out what’s actually there. My first 10k race.

Name: Sporting Life 10k Date: May 11, 2014 Location: Toronto, Ontario What I’m Looking Forward To:  The course is entirely downhill down Yonge Street – I’m looking forward to getting an awesome time I’ll never be able to beat on a flat surface! Seeing if I can beat my previous 10k race time.

Name: Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend (5k) Date: May 24, 2014 Location: Ottawa, Ontario What I’m Looking Forward To: I’ll be running this one with my dad who recently picked up running again. I have this slight fear that he’ll actually beat me. :s If this one goes well, I’ll probably do a longer race the next time I do this event.

Name: Pride and Remembrance Run (5k) Date: June 28, 2014 Location: Toronto, Ontario What I’m Looking Forward To: A good friend does an amazing post-race brunch for friends of his who ran in the Pride Run. Rainbows EVERYWHERE! Great run for a great cause. This was my first race last year and the atmosphere is awesome – everyone is really friendly and we did this as a large group (although we ran at our own paces).

 Races I’m contemplating signing up for:

Name: Winterman 2014 (5k) Date: February 16, 2014 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Things to consider: Last year they ran this event in -29C (with windchill). This has the potential to be a very, VERY cold run and because of that I definitely don’t want to do any of the longer distances. This video of last year’s event kind of made me wonder if I could even run with that much snow on the ground since I don’t have any shoes with proper snow/ice traction.

Name: 2014 Island Girl Half Marathon Date: September 21, 2014 Location: Toronto, Ontario Things to consider: Since this would be my first half marathon, I like that it’s at the end of September when we have a higher chance of it being quite cool outside. The last thing I want to do is run a long race in the dead heat (I realize I’ve jinxed myself now). It’s out on Toronto Island which would be a great place to run since it’s very flat, plus the views are beautiful. Price tag is a bit hefty: $70 until July 1st, then it goes up to a maximum of $90. I’m a bit concerned about committing to this one right now because September is a LONG ways away and I have no idea if I’ll run into any injuries as I go through my training.

So that’s my current roundup of races!