MORE race plans!!!

So, if you read my recent post about my plans to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon, you might recall that I'm treating it as a "fun run" and not going for a PR.  If you also read my City of Oaks Half Marathon recap, you may remember that I was slightly devastated when I had a horrible race and did not PR.  So, some of you might be wondering... when will Sara "race" another half marathon?  Don't worry, the Disney Princess Half is not the only spring half marathon I'm signed up for!  Just a short three weeks later, I will be running the Tobacco Road Half Marathon.  The Tobacco Road Half is on the American Tobacco Trail - part of which is right by my house and another part which is about 20 minutes away.  Since it is an old railroad track, it's supposedly a fairly flat - and therefore fast - course, so it should be ideal for a PR!

The race is on St. Patrick's Day, and Natty Greene will be giving out free beer to finishers in a beer garden with live music at the end.  Usually, beer sounds like a terrible idea to me immediately after running 13.1 miles, but it could be a fun way to end a race on St. Patrick's Day!

There was a booth for the half/marathon at the City of Oaks Expo, and the woman at the booth told us they were redesigning the medals for this race.  Last year's half marathon medal looked like this:

She told us they were trying to redesign them to be in the shape of a TRAIN.  How amazing would that be?  Yes, I am all about cool race medals.

M and I are excited to get started with our training again... and we are spicing it up!  We found out about a   a FREE training program through a New Balance store called In Motion Training.  The program provides runners with a training program and weekly workshops.  It also has group long runs every Saturday morning.  So, our first group long run is tomorrow!  I'm excited to meet the trainer (her name is Julie) and the other group members.  The only downside is that the group runs are at 7am, and some of them are 40+ minutes away from us!  That means for the next three and a half months, I'll be waking up earlier on Saturdays than I wake up during the week!

Anyway, I'll keep you guys posted on how the training is going and what I think of the program!  Have any of you ever used a trainer?  Or found a running group to do long/weekend runs with?  What was your experience like?