Everyone loves a good deal. I’m also easily influenced by my training partners to sign up for races. Combine these two things together and…well, you end up with two marathons in a 2 month period. Previously my two closest marathons date-wise were 11 months apart. That’s basically two different race seasons! I don’t really like doing marathons too close together because they’re pretty hard on the body and I haven’t come out of any of my last 3 marathons without some sort of issue:
- Disney 2013 – got rather sick next day
- Space Coast 2013 – IT Band issue (sidelined for almost a month)
- Miami 2015 – Sprained foot (Out for a week)
So how did I end up with two marathons next year just a month apart? First up is the Miami Marathon again. Melanie and I had a really great time at the race. Their tag is #MiamiFamous and it really is appropriate. I said it in my race report but Miami was just a fun and unique place to run a marathon. The international contingent was enormous. We were already were planning to register for the race again when we got an email a day or two after the race that they were running a 50% off deal. Well, score, can’t beat that! I was also able to “convince” (or, basically just ask and they signed up faster than I did) Holly and Teresa to join us so there should be a bit of a group going to that race.
The next marathon came about the way most of my race decisions are made…while I’m training. This past Sunday was a “coffee ride”. The coffee ride is a really fun ride that starts at SR54 and goes through Starkey Park before hitting the Havana Dreamer cafe at mile 16. Then we get off our bikes, have coffee and breakfast and then turn around and go home. Ok, training ride is a bit of a stretch but its a fun bike ride. Kari mentioned that a few of them were going to New Orleans next February for the Rock’n Roll Marathon and asked if Melanie and I were interested. I’ve wanted to do a RnR race for a while so I got excited. I figured I’d just do the half marathon. The conversation went something like this:
Me. “I’ll do the half marathon instead of the full since I’m already doing Miami”
Kari: “You should do the full, its only $50!”
Me: “I don’t think I want to do two races so close together.”
Kari: “The half and the full are the same price and you can drop down to the half on race day if you want.”
Melanie: “You should definitely sign up for the full.”
Me: “…well they are just over a month apart.”
So I have the option of backing out of the full on race day. I’d say the only real chance of that happening is if the weather is really hot. Also, I think it took more convincing to do this than to do Ironman Florida.