We all know it is hard to motivate ourselves during the winter months when it seems to be always cold or dark on our runs. The other week the TOTR the topic was race-cations and whether we're a fan or not. I am definitely a fan of race-cations. But again, you can’t beat local races where you can sleep in your own bed and do not have the travel expenses.
I have been undecided lately about putting a spring race on my calendar. Every year I've lived here I would always run the Shamrock Marathon. Not sure really why, because every year I have done it the weather has been awful, cold, windy, and/or rainy.
This is probably the biggest race in the area and attracts many runners. I knew that if I was going to sign up it had to be soon before the price increased again. I looked up the price and of course it was already more than I wanted to pay. I noticed that there was a processing fee also (like most races have). I wonder what the processing fee really is for? I feel like it is another way for the company to make a few more dollars. I remembered last time when I lived down in the area I was able to drop off the check personally to their corporate office to eliminate the fee.
I was going to call and see if that was still possible. They said it was going to still be a $5 processing fee to do it manually now. What? Now that is just ridiculous! I said well I should just use my friend’s coupon code for $5 off the price. He says yes you can do that and that would eliminate the processing fee. I said well it would not eliminate it, just reduce the price, because the processing fee was still more than $5. I feel like they get you one way or another!
I kept thinking if I should spend the money on the race this year after running it before. I don’t even like the race that much nor the course. And why would I want to spend money to run on a course I do daily? Maybe because I am used to the course because I run it regularly so I know what to expect. When I have run Shamrock in the past, those races were always my best times. I feel like I have become a much strong runner now than I was back then so I want to see what I can do. Bonus, it is a flat course!
I was debating on signing up for the race for a while now but It wasn’t until that weekend when I got snowed in (and was stuck in the house for three days straight) that I actually thought I needed something to motivate me to get my runs done. So I finally made the decision to click submit.
Honestly I think my biggest reason was because of FOMO. Not only do I see this on social media, but I see signs and advertisements for this particular race around my area daily. As much as I hated to spend the money on this local race, I think I would have ended up regretting not doing it when it came to the date.
Do you have FOMO? What is your reason to repeat certain races? Do you repeat ones you do not like just because it is convenient? L