2022 - a year with big plans

I'm not a patient person to be honest... and that is not great when you have way too many races on your bucket list. You just want to do them all, all now, not understanding that there will be a season in 2023, 2024 and even beyond... mind you, I already have races in my calendar for 2024 too!!!

I find it really hard to stay focused and not throw too many unimportant bucket list races in the schedule. Right now I'm trying to take things out rather than add new ones but when I manage to prune it a little bit I end up putting something else in the newly opened time window...

The focus of the year though is clear: I will have a few shots at the 6-day ultrarunning World Record - pretty much as many as I need to. I will certainly start in March in Italy - I'm very excited about that race. And I'm only planning on running more 6-day races in 2022 if I don't manage to break the record in Italy.

6 Days In The Dome 2021: 48h and 72h Canadian records

Unfortunately an injury might hinder these plans for Italy, but fear not - I have ordered an aquajogging belt and the Lever Movement for my treadmill that can help me keep running and heal up at the same time.

My options after the March race include: France in May, 6 Days in the Dome in June and EMU in Hungary in September. Some of these are better timed than others for the rest of my schedule for the year, eg. September is likely out of the question.

As a last long run / training race / gear test / asthma test / injury test I decided to enter a 72h race in Vegas in February where I could potentially break the 72h GOMU World Record (460km / 285 mi). I really just wanted to go 3 days deep once more before attempting a 6-day race again and I was originally planning on doing the first 6-day in May. Since I brought that forward to March, it is a bit too close to the 72h, but it should still work, I hope. And I'm flying to Vegas tomorrow for this one.

Desert Solstice 2021: 100mi Canadian Record, 14:57:13

Then the rest of the year will pretty much depend on how it all goes in Italy. I entered an iconic Hungarian road ultra, Ultrabalaton for end of April which might be no more than a training race (210 km / 130 miles) , but I do have some hopes of getting on the podium or even... ? It is a preferred qualifier for Badwater (2023? 2024?) .

There is one more 'A' race in the year and that is the Kona Ironman Triathlon World Championships in October but I'm not convinced yet that it is a go. Hawaii has been reluctant to let Ironman get back in since the start of COVID, although the communication right now is that this one will go ahead.

One race that is in my calendar if it goes ahead is the World Triathlon Long-Course Championships in case it will be hosted in Hungary, but nothing is confirmed yet so I will worry about it when we know the location - if they run that race this year at all. If it is not in Hungary then I'm almost certainly not going and as time passes it is less and less likely that it will go ahead.

But in the last two years I've learned one thing and that is to run the races that are actually happening and not worry about what is cancelled, postponed, not even announced.

Ironman Waco 2021 - a "B" race that earned me a Kona slot

'B' races will include the GOMU 48-hour World Championships in September - which might become an 'A' race if Kona gets cancelled and Desert Solstice 24h race in December where I might go after the Canadian 24h record but I'm not sure yet if I'm fast enough to break it. I think that one is the hardest (for me) of all the 6 Canadian records between 12h and 6-day. There are also a few other Canadian ladies after that record, so one of them might break it in the summer at the National Championship which I'm not going to run.

I have another "maybe" for a B-race in June, and that is the Double Ironman World Championship in Oregon. That's in case there is no WT World Championship in Hungary in June.

There will be other fun stuff like backyard races and potentially even the Team World Championship with Team Canada, the Boston Marathon and training races if I find local trail runs that are long enough.

Ironman Waco 2021 finish line: 1st AG, 4th overall female

Races that I was very tempted to enter but resisted were the New York Marathon and the Ultraman World Championship (this is a double-Ironman distance race), both in November. Mind you, depending on how the year unfolds, I will keep Ultraman as an option open, but since it is also in Hawaii, it might not happen and I think at that point I will want to focus on Desert Solstice instead. But Ultraman is a much much smaller race than Ironman, not thousands of people, not even hundreds, so it has a much better chance of being allowed to run than Kona.

The big question is how am I going to pull this off with 3 little kids and a company to run? My solution is to take the kids with me wherever I comfortably can. Eg. when I go to Italy to run for 6 days I will drop my youngest off with my mom in Hungary who will happily watch her for 10 days. For the Kona Ironman, I'm planning on bringing them all with me and there are enough friends coming with me (and maybe my mom too) that they can watch the girls while I race, and then before and after we will have a lot of fun exploring the Big Island.

For the shorter races I will try to be away as little as possible, and try to drive so I can come back right after the race (eg. Boston). Otherwise I just hope that everyone holds up and my company keeps growing while I pursue my ambitious athletic goals in the next year or two.