A fun first half calendar to 2012 - for an incredible cause

So after the adventure with Ultra running last year, getting in my first 100-miler in Vermont, I had another adventure in December.  It was supposed to be a 100-miler, but I really didn't think I could do it and didn't know what to expect.  Details about the race are in my buddy Mark's blog entry that you can read here :
http://tuff-it-out.blogspot.com/2012/02/balled-eagle-fattass-100-well-50.html
And here's a video recap!
http://vimeo.com/38752133

I also ran the Knickerbocker 60K in November which back in 2009 was my first ultra and the day I swore I would never do an ultra again (I was delusional!).  I had some nagging NYC Marathon annoying semi-injury issues come back during the run just a little and managed to take 23 minutes off my time (nearly 40 seconds per mile).  Can't wait to see how I do in that race in 2012! 

Anyway, last year we got the news that an honored teammate, (someone on Team in Training that either had cancer currently or was a survivor that trained with us for the same races if they could), Larry Comroe had passed away when the cancer we all thought he had been in remission from for over 5 years had come back and was too aggressive.  It was a complete shock.  A few of his good friends and former TNT teammates decided to put together a team this year in which it doesn't matter what event we train for, we are going to raise money for Larry's Memory.  Our goal is $100,000 as a group, which is what we need to get a research grant named in his memory.   So I am fundraising and have picked out an aggressive and exciting schedule through June and something fun in August.  The schedule is:

February - I completed the Hong Kong Marathon in 3:21:50 - taking tons of pictures along the way and three days earlier, running 22 miles on the Maclehose Trail (sections 4,5 and 6 I did an out and back). 

April 14th - Bull-Run Run - A 50 Mile Trail run in Virginia

May 5th - North Face Endurance Bear Mountain 50 miler - A challenging 50 mile course on and around Bear Mountain in New York

June 2nd - Old Dominion 100 - A 100 mile Trail run in Virginia on one of the oldest 100-mile courses and trails.

August 11th - Ironman NYC - Here's the fun part.  I am not going to do any training (ok, I will swim 1 time just to make sure I remember how) on the swim or bike and see how tough it is to "wing" an Ironman

I hope that I continue to stay (serious) injury free and enjoy all of these events lined up for the very near future.  I also hope that I can reach my aggressive fundraising goal I set at $8,000.  Because I started training and doing my first crazy endurance things in Triathlons with Larry 8 years ago in Nov/Dec of 2004.  

Here is my fundraising page

http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/madrid12/mbielik24