2021 the year of bad ideas with good intent

2020 had a few events that we were signed up for, get crammed into a small block of weekends.

The 2021 Summer and Fall race plan is as follows. 

Training races/runs to lead up to the big events;
7/24/21 - James Decker and I are running the Catherine's Furnace 50k put on by the VHTRC (Virginia Happy Trails Running Club)
8/14/21 - Gina and I are headed to Crozet to run the infamous JIM (Jarman's Invitational Marathon).
Update to this - we ended up getting Covid during or immediately after this race and had two weeks until the Rut.

The Big Events;
Back in 2017 we headed out to Montana to run the The Rut Mtn Runs VK & 50k.  In the 3 days of events, only the Saturday 28k got to the top of Lone Peak.  The Vertical Kilometer was shortened due to wind and the 50k was shortened due to ice and snow.  A good size group of us are doing one or more of the races.  When signing up this time, Jonathan Adcock and I did what sane trail runners do, we signed up for all three races so that we could almost guarantee getting to the top, in one or all of the races.  

9/3/21 - The Rut Mtn Runs Vertical Kilometer
9/4/21 - The Rut Mtn Runs 28k
9/5/21 - The Rut Mtn Runs 50k - I opted not to do this

Then we head to Lake Tahoe to try and tame the Broken Arrow Skyrace.  This was supposed to be a June race, but California was one of the most strict states with their Covid guidance, and it got postponed to October.  

10/1/21 - The Broken Arrow Vertical Kilometer
10/2/21 - The Broken Arrow 52k

And, finally, 9 days later I made it into the 125th Boston Marathon.  I'm not really excited to run another marathon to qualify for the 2022 event, so I'm headed there to experience the Covid postponed reduced field event.  If I could have my way I'm hoping for 3 things;
- that I survive the aforementioned races without injury
- that I enjoy the race this time. 2018 was a complete mess due to the weather.  It was more of a "let's get this thing done" rather than an enjoyable race.
- and I run another qualifying event of 3:15 or better (3:20 is my qualifying time and the 5 minutes is the extra time I'd probably need to get in).