Decisions, Decisions

There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.  -- Simon Sinek

Well.  I made a decision yesterday.  I hadn't expected to make a decision.  But I did.  So there.  On March 14, 2015, I will be doing the DC Rock and Roll Marathon in, well...duh... Washington DC.

In about 25 weeks...plenty of time for my foot to heel and even do a "couch-to-marathon"-ish type plan from beginning to end.

It wasn't an easy decision; in fact, I kind of agonized and dragged my feet on it for weeks.  Not exactly weeks, because I hadn't even considered the DC R&R until last night, but I had been mulling over Instant Classic, Newport News, Shamrock, maybe even going back to the scene of my first injury at Charlottesville...all of the races had their own pros and cons.  But in the end, DC R&R won out - and in a rush, because they were running a limited-time sale.  Yeah, I'm one of those cheap people that will rush a purchase if there's a sale.  (It ended up not being that great a sale because of the transaction fees to register - jeebus, seriously?  How expensive can it be to process an Internet race registration...but I digress.)

Shamrock 3/15 - pros:  I've done it before, it's fairly flat, all of my tri friends will be in VA Beach that weekend (most of them doing the half mary), free beer & great medals
cons:  EXPENSIVE - expensive to register, expensive to stay (although last year I stayed away from the beach and it wasn't so bad), iffy weather along the shore, beer not as much fun if you have to drive home 2-3 hours...

Newport News 3/22 - pros:  one more week of healing/training, one more week after the half mary I want to do in February, cheaper
cons:  it's a new race & those are usually subject to logistical glitches, I prefer a big race right now and it's unknown how big it will be since it's new (and one week after Shamrock), I'd still have to stay overnight

Instant Classic, 3/14 - pros:  I did the half mary there a few years ago, I wouldn't have to stay overnight, cheap
cons: SMALL SMALL SMALL - I'd be out there alone a lot, it's a trail race so no PR and potential injury, little to no hoopla

Charlottesville, 4/5 - pros:  they've changed the course since I did it last (it was mega hilly), I wouldn't have to stay overnight, reasonably priced
cons:  SMALL, SMALL (not as small as Instant Classic, so only two SMALLs), even with the course change it's still hilly, little to no hoopla

All of this brings me to DC R&R, 3/14...let's do the cons first.
cons:  expensive, I'll have to stay overnight, LOGISTICS of dealing with metro & downtown DC with 25,000 of my closest running friends, not entirely flat, very short cutoff time (5.5 hours...with my marathon PR currently at 5:12)
pros:  they were running a sale through yesterday (which ended up covering just slightly more than the processing fee :( ), it's a race I haven't done before, DC is generally not subject to the same windy weather that VA Beach is...

So you'd think that the cons might outweigh the pros, right?  Yeah.  Probably.  But the thing of it is I love DC. I love the monuments.  I love the neighborhoods (except the sketchy one that Iron Sherpa and I lived in right out of grad school).  I love the tourists.  I love being a tourist there more than I loved living there - but still...  Anyway.  I love to RUN in DC.  When I'm there for conferences, I spend a lot of time out running the various trails or just around the monuments.  When we lived there, I'd run up and down the Mall from my office near the White House.  Seriously.  And that, in the end, is why I will be in DC this March despite the many negatives I can see.  I may hate the logistics and I may be stressed about the time cutoffs, but I will love running the race.