I left off yesterday talking about how sometimes races get cancelled.
For instance, I was supposed to be doing a race with The Hometown Race Series this morning. I suppose I’m about to start a mini-rant on them. (You know how much I love my rants.)
Before I do that, let me preface this by saying that so far, I’ve done one race with them. And I loved it. Every staff member and volunteer on their team, that I’ve ever communicated with, has been sweet and awesome. And The Hometown Race Series has the coolest bonus medal of any race series I’ve seen so far – it’s 13.1 inches long!
That’s what makes it that much more upsetting when it gets more and more complicated to complete their series! In order to get the special medal, I need to finish three of their races in the year.
First, I ran their Havasu Half Marathon (which was awesome). Then, I was planning on running their California Half Marathon later in the year. (My third one was (and continues to be) the Arizona Half Marathon in Goodyear on October 6. Let’s really hope that nothing happens to that one.)
The California Half was moved to 2013. Well, okay. That makes things harder, but not impossible. There is one in Nevada the day before the Columbus Half Marathon. That kind of sucks. Now that I’m working, and can’t just gallivant around anymore, I’d love to at least spend the whole weekend with my family and friends – instead of having to rush into town late the night before, and leave right after the race.
The Nevada Half is my last resort option, but at least it exists. There was also the option of this “Big Money Run” in August. The time limit is 3 hours, so I’d really be pushing it. But, it’d be conceivably possible if I could get a bit faster.
Cut to: Me on the computer a few days ago – as my life for the next 6 months is becoming clearer as far as work, and school, and things are concerned; I was cleaning out the schedule, trying to decide what I really could and couldn’t do/did and didn’t want to do. Sure enough, I see the “Vista Half Marathon” up on the Hometown Race Series schedule. That’s fabulous!
It fell on a day that I didn’t have a race, and was coming up soon (August 11th). Let’s do it. Let’s get this second race in this series out of the way. Not only would it eliminate the stress I’d put on myself with a 3-hour cutoff in the Big Money Run, it would give me get an extra day in Ohio with my friends and family (by letting me avoid the Nevada Half).
I registered immediately.
An email came not even a week later saying they’ve cancelled the race! Bummer.
Then, I go to read about the Big Money Run to see how strict that 3-hour cutoff really looks. Lo and behold, the Big Money Run had actually been transitioned into being the Vista Half Marathon (which was the one that just got cancelled). Now I’m down to my only choice being the Nevada Half Marathon the day before Columbus.
It’s really not that big of a deal. I’m over it already. I obviously see my family all the time. Just since this blog started, I’ve already seen my dad 4 times! He visited me out here in January. I stopped by and saw him in March, on my tour of the east coast. I ran his first half marathon with him in May. Then, I flew to Ohio so he could be at my first full marathon in June. So, I’ve see him a lot. A ton in fact.
Hopefully I’ll see pretty much everybody I know in Ohio on race day. If I can convince everyone to join in on the 13.1-mile party, I’ll get a few hours with a number of people I love. So, that’s the real hope.
I’m definitely not meaning to be hating on the Hometown Race Series. They put on great races. They’re sweethearts over there. I’m sure it is incredibly hard to shut down parts of a city for a race. I can imagine all the logistics that go into putting on a running event. Hats off to them that they keep trying to give us events that we’re gonna love.
But, it’s still a bummer when those events don’t happen. (And IO Events (the parent company) has “MyFirst” – a cool program for first time runners. I’m sure it’s even more of a bummer when you sign up for your first race ever and it doesn’t happen…)
This is not the only series that has cancelled or moved events – which is where I’ll pick up tomorrow.