margarethunthillbridgeEvery summer, I tell myself I will keep it up. I won’t gain 500 pounds over the not-summer months of October-December. But every January, I find an elephant belly squeezed into my pants. This year is no exception.

So I set a fitness goal. And I’ve found that Dash for the Beads, the 5k race that this year is Feb. 9 at Kidd Springs Park, is a good jump start. It’s five or six weeks from the severe reality of the new year, just enough time to train for those three-point-one little miles. Registration costs $30, but there is free beer from Rahr at the end.

Sign up for our newsletter!

* indicates required

If you’re not quite there for Feb. 9, you’re in good company. Neither am I (although I will be out there anyway maybe not dashing for beads so much as shuffling for them). There is another race, about six weeks out from now. The 9th-annual Trinity Levee Run is Saturday, March 2. Registration for that also costs $30, through Feb. 26, but it comes with a technical shirt. Plus, the 2-mile, 5k and 10k racecourses all travel over the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.