Trying to get in 12 marathons for 2012 didn't sound like a challenge when we first talked about it, and even the running part has not been a concern. What has been trying is finding the races that work in my schedule with this weather, or a distance worth traveling to.
This week I was supposed to have my first of the 12 on Saturday and I was going to be doing it all by myself! At the last minute, Chelsea was going to be home and decided to come with me. She would run the 5k and I will run the half.
With the entrance fee paid and the weather looking questionable, we decided to head out Friday night for the Saturday race. Packet pick up on the eve of the race was at the start location which was perfect, since we weren't familiar with the area.
We drove over 2 hours and found ourselves going through winding, quiet, country roads with no restaurants or hotels anywhere in site. We thought sure the next corner we came around there would be the city with houses, and people and a place to spend the night, but the only thing we came to was a quiet church on a quiet street where the race start was to begin and packet pickup was located.
We parked in what I thought was a parking space, because of the snow, since no other cars were around. We were wondering if we had to be at the wrong place? We walked into the empty church, and knew things weren't looking like any other race we've done. With no one else around and not even a local restaurant or hotel, we were feeling a bit uneasy about it.
Chelsea spoke up and asked about how many people were doing the race, and it turned out there were a mere 25 signed up for the half marathon and 30 for the 5k. Which while I know its not always about the numbers, things just weren't feeling right about this race. While reading over the race details, Chelsea noticed that you would be running with the traffic at some points and were cautioned to be aware of your own surroundings. I began wondering if this was a good idea at all?
Because of the bad weather we drove the 20 minutes back to the nearest town and got a hotel for the night, we went to dinner, discussed the race details and I called my husband. As I told him the amount of runners he repeated 25 hundred... no, I said just 25. I looked up the population of the city, to see if this would help explain the poor turnout for this race, and while I know I live in a small town of 171 thousand, I found the population of this city to be a meer 293.... not 293 thousand, but two hundred ninety three people... they even broke it down to male/female 134 males, and 159 females.
Had the weather been better, and we found a local hotel, I may have still ran this race... but there were too many doubts that were having me question the decision to run, that I decided against it.
So its back to training and planning for me. My first race will be in Williamsburg the end of this month and I'm looking forward to it, we also found a race in South Carolina that works during Chelsea's spring break, and we can go see my nephew Shawn run for his college track conference, so I'd say its a win win for us!
