Looking for a race....but not just any race

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a hoarder. When I was packing up my room to move to Florida from New York, I was surprised at how many things I had collected over the years. Old cat toys, weird headbands, shirts that I thought were being kept for some important reason.

But the thing I seem to hoard the most are old issues of Runner's World. When I first started running in January of 2009, I went to the local CVS (1/2 mile away...I drove there. My how times have changed) and bought the February 2009 issue of Runner's World. I got on a treadmill at my college's rec center, and ran for as long as I could with the speed set at 4.6 MPH. I've read that issue over and over and over, and I still have it.

And it's that way with every issue since. I've been a Runner's World subscriber since that issue, and every month is the same. I read the issue from cover to cover while on the treadmill/elliptical/stationary bike/stairclimber. I've kept every issue, and it's a pretty large hoard of magazines at this point. Now I'll just grab a random issue and read it during my workouts.

How is all this relevant? Last night I went to the gym, and after doing a solid round of strength training, I got on the elliptical with a random issue that I grabbed from the pile. This issue happened to be from May '09, with RW cover girl Kara Goucher. In her article, she says something that had me thinking...

"I need a race every month or I go crazy..."

I ran my last half marathon a little over a month ago, and I haven't done a race since. No 5K, no 10K, not even a mile race. My workouts lately have been going fine, but I'm worried that I have no real motivation. What am I training for? At this point I've been going to the gym because it's something to do and because I don't want to lose my fitness. But I want more.

So I've been looking for a race to run. I've told myself that I refuse to start training for a marathon until I can run sub 2:00 in a half marathon. My PR is 2:23, so I'm still a little ways away. I'd like to run another half marathon in May or June, so that I have more than enough time to train smart since I tend to overwork myself in training.

Where do I go? If I'm shooting for May or June, I have the option to run either in the southeast or the northeast, since my mom will still be living in the New York house at that point. Do I stay local and run a potentially very warm Florida half? Do I run the LI Half Marathon...again? Do I make a trip out of it and just travel to a random part of the country?

Decisions decisions...