I picked up a Windy City Sports yesterday so I could get right back on track with my race schedule after finding out the Shamrock Shuffle was closed.
I had NO IDEA it would be literally impossible to find another 8K race - not just in my time frame, but in general. It appears nobody's putting on 5 milers.
I did find out if I join CARA (Chicago Area Runners Association) I might be able to get one of their reserved spots for the Shamrock Shuffle... but their website is can be really stupid (for example, a race listing doesn't necessarily tell you the date of the race or the start time), and I don't choose to associate myself with organizations that can't get their shit together that way. Plus, I don't want to pay membership dues for an organization I'm not interested in just to be able to get into a particular race.
I checked Windy City Sports online too, thinking the paper version probably wouldn't have the latest info. I was correct, but there's still no other 8K races.
Then I also started looking for another half marathon. Because I learned yesterday, while perusing the race calendars, that for whatever bizarre reason, the Chicago marathon is several weeks earlier this year than it used to be, which means they pushed back the Chicago Half Marathon several weeks earlier... to the same weekend as IMWI. That means my biggest goal race for the whole freaking year is blown out of the water too.
But I was taking it all in stride, thinking 'how hard can it be to find another half marathon? Fall is ideal marathon weather.'
Apparently, even harder than finding an 8K.
There are exactly 3 half-marathons in the time frame I'm looking at. And because someone has GOT to be asleep at the fucking wheel here... all three on the same fucking day... the same fucking day as Ironman Wisconsin!!!
After expanding my search I finally found ONE that's technically an option in late September... if I don't mind a 5 hour drive to northern Wisconsin. I wanted my first half to be a personal event and all - it's why I wanted to do Chicago - but if I'm travelling and getting hotels and needing to pay for freaking petsitters... I really don't want to do it for a half marathon in Podunk Wisconsin that I've never even heard of.
My carefully planned race schedule is a pathetic mess, with my first key race closed and my goal race blown out of the water. WTF?! I am not an idiot here - I based these choices on previous year's race calendars.
I'm at a loss. At this point, unless I go with traveling to Wisconsin (which I'll have just done 2 weeks prior for IMWI, so can't really afford) my options are to do one I saw available in June (which really doesn't work, because I've got a sprint that month and will be getting into the heart of my Oly training) or August (which really doesn't work because that's when I'm doing the Oly). Or, push it back to spring 2008, when a decent number of options are available. But I don't want to do one in the spring, when my health and training over the winter are always sub-optimal.
I really really really wanted to do the half this fall! It's when the timing works out for training, and it's when I'm personally prepared to do it. What the heck is wrong with people scheduling all the events of that distance on the same freaking day?!?!
6 comments:
I'm glad to hear of someone else in the same boat. Race promoters in all disciplines have a very rough time not stepping on the toes of other promoters. I had the hardest time setting a calendar this year, as several races are on the same weekends. It's nuts. But when you calm down and really think about it...there aren't that many weekends in the year for events. Especially when taking weather into consideration. I hope you find a five miler and a half that work out for you. Keep up the training.
Have you checked out active.com? If all else fails, you could take a trip to NY - we have five half marathons every year.
I can't imagine how frustrated you must be! It sucks when you have a nice little tidy plan and it all gets screwed up!
Hey, you can always move out here to California...there's a race practically every weekend!
I say run the Shamrock Shuffle as a bandit i.e. don't pay but do the race anyway...carry your own water and don't use the aid stations if you feel guilty. Nobody kicks you off the course for not having a number (it's public property) and you still get to run with a bunch of other people!
Podunk is referred to by us northerners as Bumfuck, WI. Better use the lingo or they'll know right away you are "one of those IL idiots." No need to thank me, I'm here to help. ;)
Wylee, I think Podunk is actually a suburb of East Bumblefuck, WI. ;P
Siren: http://www.crazylegsclassic.com/
8K. Madison. 4/28/2007. Registration's still open. :)
Veeg said what I was going to say. :)
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