another race!

Tonight I registered for my second 5K race. It's the Lanier Under the Lights 5K at Lake Lanier Islands' Magical Nights of Lights.

Of course, I am really excited for many reasons.
1. This is my first race since my surgery (ok, first race since before ALL of my surgeries) and is sort of a celebration of my health.

2. This:

It's the week before Thanksgiving and the course goes through a huge Christmas lights display. Considering I was busy having internal organs removed and moving across the state (again) last holiday season, this is a way for me to fit in extra holiday excitement this year to make up for it.

3. It is my first night race.

4. I'll be running it with some cool ladies that went to school with Steve and currently live in the ATL.

With the start of the semester and other stuff going on in my life, running has sort of fallen by the wayside, so signing up for this also is working as a swift kick in the pants to get back to training. My current training reward system is simple, super cheap, and inspired by one of my favorite Gleeks.

In the first season, Rachel Berry talked about how she likes to put a gold star by her name because she is a winner. After several reward schedules and plans fell apart for me, I decided to take a play from Rachel's playbook and use gold stars too.

I have a calendar hanging in the hallway. On the days when I meet my training goals, I get to put a gold star on the calendar for that day.

Sounds a little ridiculous and a lot silly, but if today (technically yesterday since it is now 1 am... yikes!) is any indication the system is going to be very successful.

So... here's to putting some mileage on my still relatively new running shoes and loading up that calendar with a ton of gold stars! Because I am a winner and I am going to rock it out at that race!