Races I Want To Run

In the next year, I have found a few races that I, as an individual, would like to run.  Of course, if others were to join me, I WOULD LOVE IT!  Frank wants to do a few with me which is so cool!  And a few races will also be run with a friend of mine who's training too!  So I'll be in good company!

Basically as I've looked for races to run, I have mainly considered: what am I paying for?  I'm not talking about the t-shirts, or about the snacks and whatnot, I'm talking about the purpose for the run.  I love paying for things that help other people.  The biggest thing I love giving money towards (when I can) is anything to do with children!  But there are also a few organizations who are near and dear to my heart, like Habitat for Humanity, or any missions organization.  After searching for the past few weeks, I have narrowed down to a few races over the next semester.

My goal is to tun at least 1 race a month - the first one starting in September (this way there's time to train, it's not the beginning of the semester, and we don't pay extra for a deadline that ends next week!  These are some of the races that Frank and I have narrowed down to:

September:

September 2 - Blythewood Labor Day Run (we would do the 5K portion!)
September 21 - Dam Run in Irmo (10K)

October:

October 12 - Mud Run in Gaston (10K - if we got a team of 4!)
October 19 - Habitat for Humanity Run in Columbia (5K, 10K)
October 26 - Miles for Missions in Summerville (5K)
October 26 - Pumpkin Run in Columbia (5K)

November:

November 2 - James Island Connector Run in James Island (10K)
November 25 - Runway Run in Columbia (5K - Anna found this one!)

December:

December 13 - Harborside Lights and YMCA in Columbia (5K)

Obviously, for time and money, we won't be able to do ALL of them.  However, we're committing to do at least one per month, and I committing to the possibly of doing two in September and two in November.

For those of you who have trouble with motivating yourself to doing any physical activity or have a hard time receiving motivation for getting in shape: find a race to run and train for it!  There are different distances you can choose from depending on where you look: 1 mile, 2 miles, 5K, 5 miles, 10K, 13K, half/mini marathon, and so on!  You don't have to start off with something you can't handle, but start off with something - it really helps to feel like you're really working towards a goal!  To find more races around your area, here are two websites you can look at:

beta.active.com
Running In the USA

There are plenty more websites that you ca search on, but these two are a pretty good start!  As for me, I will keep you guys updated on which races we choose to run every month, and as the next semester approaches, there will be more races to run!

Thanks for your encouragement, brothers and sisters, I feel more and more confident as I receive encouragement from you in this journey for me! :)