Friday, March 27, 2009

No Boston for JD

After much anguish, I've decided not to run the Boston Marathon. Instead I will be running the Seaton Trail 52k Trail Run, in Pickering, relatively close to my house.

I feel a bit funny about my decision. I've told so many people I was going to Boston. Now I'm going to have to explain that I chose not to go. At some point I realized that I was going there to race for others, not for myself. The hard part about Boston is to qualify, not the race itself and I've done that. I know I can do it again. 

How did this happen? I was so excited about running the Boston Marathon. How did it come to this? I think my main reason is that since my A race is the Sulphur Springs 50 miler, running Boston slowly as a training run just didn't make any sense physically, emotionally and financially. Physically because I would have to drive 600 miles to Boston, race, and then drive back. Emotionally because I would have had to run it as a training run and that would have been a waste. Financially because even with driving instead of flying, the expense of the whole family staying in Boston for 3 days for a training run would have been substantial.

The fact is, I need to run more trails and switching to a trail race makes a lot more sense. Also, I really enjoy trail races. People are friendly both before, during and after the race. There's not much chit-chat during your typical road race, while in a trail ultra, people who know they will be sharing 5 or 6 hours of pain are quite a bit more talkative, if only to make the time pass a bit faster!

So my hotel is canceled. I'm registered for the Seaton Trail race. I feel good about this. I'm excited again.

4 comments:

Jamie said...

You are dead to me!

No, just kidding. All love. It is definitely a hard decision to make and I give you credit for being honest with yourself. It isn't easy.

Good luck.

George Houston said...

It makes sense to me. However I do under stand the whole explaining part. It can get very repetitive. But at the end of the day you are doing what makes you happy and that’s what matters.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Good choice JD- especially given your goal race. I would eventually like to run Boston- maybe 2010. Boston just sounds so fancy, people get impressed. Trail races are much more challenging- plenty of hills to break your heart. I know you're going to have a blast at your "52k" :)

By the way, try the Sony MDR-J10 Headphones. Cheap (less than 10 bucks), and they work out great! I've run with these since I started running.

Caroline Novak said...

The trail running sounds so cool. I also think it's pretty cool to do what you want in your heart, rather than some perceived notion of what one should do.