I’m looking at running my first marathon this fall/winter and could see myself running 2-3 half marathons or marathons this fall/winter/spring. I was able to run a 1:47 half marathon last year with 2 months of training so I’m pretty confident in my ability if I’m able to stick with the training. Unfortunately my only current exercise has been about 60 mins of daily commuting by bicycle but I’ve started getting out for 30 min runs twice a week and I plan on tapering up to 60 min runs 2-3 times/week over the next 2-3 months. And then add in a long run to make the jump to marathon distance.
But I’m more interested in feedback regarding the races scheduled in Taiwan this year. I work on Saturdays so I’m mostly interested in Sunday races to avoid taking days off and not getting paid. Running gets expensive when you forfeit 4-5K in pay and have travel/entry expenses also. And I’m looking mostly at southern taiwan (I’m a kaohsiung’er) to save travel time and keep it cheaper. Fortunately there are a lot of races that work out for me. i’ve only looked at the CTRA website links taipeimarathon.org.tw/contes … lang=en-US
Here are some of the races that interested me
8/29 - Chinshui, taichung - 2010 Taiwan Big Foot (appropriate for a foreigner entering?) Biking and Running Race (Accept 800 Participants) - 5.3R, 29.1Bike, 5.3R - it’s not southern Taiwan but it’s easily accessible by train and I like the bike/run mix. I like this one a lot for a first race (or almost first race) in Taiwan.
[strike]9/19 and 9/26 - sinchu (this is HsinChu near Taipei right?) and Keelung have marathons - I could travel Sat night for these but I’m not real interested esp if I did the taichung ride/bike race[/strike]
10/17 - 2010 Heng-chun Airport Marathon - Ping-Tung county - it’s close and it has 10K, half and full distances
[strike]11/6 - Taroko - I definitely plan on running Taroko before I leave but not this year.[/strike]
11/28 - 2010 Hua-tung Vally Happy Living Tai-tung Marathon - probably about as convenient as getting to Taipei but i’ve heard the Tai-tung area is beautiful
12/12 - The 27th MIZUNO Zeng-wen Reservoir Marathon - Nan-si Township, Tainan - also easy to get to
12/19 - 2010 Taipei International Marathon - small races are fun but there is something cool about a massive race like this
3-4 more races in kaohsiung/Tainan/Pingtung in Jan/Feb
Has anyone ran any of these races and have comments (positive or negative)? I have two motivations for running races. First I find the events to be fun (before/during/after). And I enjoy having the competition which allows me to stay focused on exercising since I can be very lazy. Preferably I would like to run in a race every two months or so to stay focused but also to avoid burnout. And obviously at this point I’m not planning to run a full marathon every two months but would if my body allowed it.