Happy Tuesday, y’all. Hope your Independence Day was a fun! Mine was awesome as I completed my 21st half marathon in 21 states in 365 days. Only two more races to go!
Today on Tuesdays on the Run, we are talking about how you choose the races you run. What is your thought process?
Mine is pretty straight forward: Run.All.The.Races!
No?
OK, really my first thought is “does it get me a new state?” If the answer is yes, run it. If no…
Create Your Own Visited States Map
Is it near a new brewpub? (Map is FAR from comprehensive.) If the answer is yes, run it. If no…
Does Shoo have a soccer game or tournament? Yeah, I don’t check his schedule first. I’m sure that makes me a bad mom, but soccer season and race season overlap a LOT. If I never ran when he has a game, I’d never get to race. I love my kid and I attend most of his games, but mommy needs some fun too.
If a race doesn’t get me a new state and doesn’t get me a new brewpub, but Shoo doesn’t have a game, I’ll consider it, but unless it’s local, I’m not likely to run. That’s right. I’m not going to drive a long ways and potentially have hotel costs if there aren’t a new state and a new beer involved (Yes, I want both.) If it’s local and I haven’t raced in a while, then yes, please, sign me up.
When I finish my last two half marathons in August, I’ll hit Mercury. I’ll also be done with half marathons for the year. I may just go into withdrawal. All I’ll have left are Marine Corps Marathon and a 5 mile chocolate run.
Maybe I need to find some new criteria…
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That 5 mile chocolate run sound fun. Where is that at?
What about Oregon? I did the Eugene half and the place we went to for dinner the night before was also a brew pub, Hop Valley Brewing.
Oh, lady! Come to Ohio! We have some great races in CLE and some fantastic brewpubs, too. I’ll show you around if you decide to come, and I have a place for you to stay!
So cool to see that you’ve run so many states! I like to pick races that are in a reasonable location that I can easily get to, that have a good reputation/excellent course, and that aren’t too expensive!
My criteria lately is 1st) Local races only and then 2nd) What’s the distance? I feel like anything less than a half marathon isn’t worth the effort. 3rd) What is the course like? I DNS’d a race this weekend that I’d signed up for on a whim because I didn’t check the course beforehand and it went along a busy highway for 6 miles. And 4th) How much does it cost and have I already blown by race budget for the year?
I like that part of your criteria is that it’s near a pub with good beer 🙂
Other than checking kids schedules, we have pretty opposite criteria… mine is what’s closest to home!! But I love following your adventures all over the country!
I love the “does this take me to a new brewery?” criteria! Reminds me that I need to add “run a winery race” to my bucket list… (or create a winery focused race bucket list!) Good luck with getting those last two states!
You are quickly marking off those states! Impressive.
Wow… look at all those states, impressive!