This is a story of what happens when you don’t keep a calendar of upcoming races.
Once upon a time, there was a guy who liked to run a lot of local races. He was fortunate enough to live in an area that gave him multiple opportunities to race throughout any given month.
Back in Spring, over the course of a few weeks this runner noticed a local race called the Oaktown Half that kept popping up on social media. It looked like a fun race, with nice look and feel, and it was in August when this runner didn’t typically have any races planned. It also had a 5k and half marathon challenge—challenges with bonus medals were something this runner enjoyed. He texted 2 of his running friends and after some coordinating, all three had registered for the race.
Fast forward to early summer when this same runner is on social media (again). He sees an upcoming race called the Bear Creek Half Marathon that also looks like a fun race, also has a nice look and feel, and is in August when this runner doesn’t typically have any races planned. This race is also on trails, which is always challenging, but fun. So he registers for the race and goes about his day.
I bet you know what happened next?
Yep. All three races are on the same weekend. And how did he figure this out? A friend realized it for him. Bahaha. In case you haven’t figured it out, the main character in this story is me. The friend that realized it is David, aka @fitfam6. I was talking to him and Paula (his wife) about an upcoming trail race that I was running and that they should consider it. I told them the name and later David texted me saying it was the same weekend as the Oaktown Half and 5k Challenge that the 3 of us were doing ( with Richard, aka @blingwhore).
I’m not sure when I would have realized that the three events were all on the same weekend—probably when I started receiving bib pick-up emails.
Fortunately enough, the timing works out.
Saturday, 8:00am:
Bear Creek Half Marathon, Briones Park
Saturday, 4:00pm:
Oaktown 5k, Oakland
Sunday, 7:30am:
Oaktown Half Marathon, Oakland
This looks very familiar to the #Dirt2Strip Challenge (have you seen the video?) we are doing in November—trail Half, 5k, road Half)… so I guess this is like training, but without the airplane. #Dirt2Town?
The good news is that I now have a nice excel sheet with upcoming races that includes ones I’m registered for and a couple of “wish list” races that I haven’t pulled the trigger on. I even made it fancy and added travel and hotel columns.
Do you have a calendar with upcoming races?
