Take a look at the FAQ
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-events-calendar/other_notes/
This may be a better option for you
eventDisplay=upcoming
<?php $custom=new WP_Query('cat=7&eventDisplay=upcoming'); ?>
This automatically filters events so only the upcoming events show so you don’t need to do the date comparison.
I did find that to limit the number of events utilizing this method I had to utilize a post counter.
