Race Entry: Give yourself the present of a goal race for 2023—perhaps Skunk Cabbage Classic or Finger Lakes 50s!
Backstretch Bingo is a hybrid online/in-person activity that gives runners a way to engage with one another and keep their running fresh during the dark days of December—the veritable backstretch of the year.
I’m signed up to run the Hyner Trail Challenge 50K next April. It will be my first time there and I’m pretty excited!
And with that, I have bingo! 
I’m registered for the El Paso Marathon in February and am also on the watchlist for the October 2023 Mount Taylor 50k in Grants, NM, just 2 hrs west of Albuquerque. The 50k features 7,000 ft of climbing including a mountain summit at 11,300 ft above sea level and lots of amazing views! Photo is from marking the Mt Taylor course with Sam and friends this fall.
In addition to the awesome local events and other races, we have the Frigus 50 mile snowshoe race in February and notchview 48 hour trail ultra in july!
Wow so impressive that y’all are running ultras!!! 
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to run a race in Ithaca 
But Ben, my partner, signed me up for the Edinburgh Marathon on May 28, so I figured I could use this bingo challenge to pick a half marathon and work my way up to the marathon. Since I am joining Ben in London for Valentine’s Day and we are staying in an apartment near Kew Gardens, I was looking for a half marathon close to that location in February and found the perfect one 
Richmond Half Marathon on February 19: RunUK : Richmond Half Marathon 2023
I signed up…
… and one more bingo for me!
I’m so excited about races this year!!! Last year I found out my iron was critically low and I was very anemic. It had been impacting my running pretty significantly for at least two years. The races I did last year felt like big challenges and I’m looking forward to running them again with twice the volume of red blood cells.
So far I’m signed up for Cayuga Fifties and the half marathon the following day (last year a group of us did the 10k the day after bc friends don’t let friends waste the day after a race). I did these last year.
I’m also signed up for the Notchview Ultra 48 miler and Twisted Branch!
I’m eagerly awaiting signup for Thom B (I needed extra time to finish last year so I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes this year) and Fingerlakes Fifties! Also Virgil Crest which Vinny is taking over!
The next thing is MST 100 in March which it has been fun to strategize for with winter miles, but I’m waiting until January first to sign up. (Doing it with a friend and we agreed to wait until then to make sure training was going well… so far so good!)
