Every Friday, three DC area bloggers Mar at Mar On the Run, Cynthia at You Signed Up For What?! and Courtney from Eat Pray Run, DC to host the Friday Five linkup. Anyone can join with their own Friday Five post (yes, it must be a Friday Five!!) They encourage you to visit other blogs on the linkup, comment, share and engage!
Since I am racing this weekend and many weekends to come and I don’t cook much or eat healthy, my Friday Five topic is: Five Reasons to Race A Lot.
Here ‘s why I run so many races:
1. Cool Swag
Sometimes, it’s just a shirt but lots of times, it is a bag, water bottle, food samples, key chain, and other running-related goodies.
2. Free Food
I love to eat especially to replenish the calories burned during running.
3. Gets you out there during the week.
When it is cold, windy and just plain nasty and I don’t feel like running, if I have a race scheduled for the weekend, I will make myself get out there and run. I know if I don’t run during the week, then my finish time will suffer, I may get injured and/or the race will be unpleasant. It takes a long time to get in shape and such a short time to feel out of shape.
4. Meet new and old running friends.
Many of my running friends, I have met at races. It is so fun to see a familiar face at a race and chat…about running, of course.
5. Replaces Speed Workouts.
I am the first to admit it. I know that I should, but I don’t do speed drills, tempos, intervals, hill repeats, strides, etc. So for me, I guess my workout happens during a race. I’ll do those hills, run sprints and then, if I am scheduled for a long run, I’l continue my miles after the race at a slower pace.
Happy Running! Do you run a lot of races? If so, why?
As you know, I don’t race anywhere near as often as you.
Galloway wrote a whole article in RW on how he doesn’t do speedwork, he just races, so there you go, you’re in good company!
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Yes, I forgot that I mention that.
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Great points! I never thought about races as a replacement to speed work but that makes sense. And it looks like you’ve had some great post-race food. I think I just usually see the bagels and bananas. I might need to be on the look out for races with better food at the end 🙂
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Many just have fruit & bagels but it’s great to see more especially appreciate chocolate milk!!
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i DON’T run a lot of races, but i always MEAN to! i think part of it is not knowing what weekends i’ll be here or there or wherever, and part is not wanting to shell out $ for shorter races! i don’t mind as much for longer ones.
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You seem to have a wonderful assortment of races that are very plentiful in your area. The swag is nice, and the food afterwards can be really good, especially at smaller races. I don’t race very much. We have alot of local 5k’s, but those are a real struggle for me so I race far less. I did sign up for a 10k today though!
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I saw that…jealous!!
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I use to race a lot so I could travel! I got to the point now where I’d rather stay home… lol. This just means I want to find more local races!
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I only travel once or twice a year. The rest of my races are local.
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I don’t run a lot of races but they do motivate me!
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You are too busy crossfitting, biking, doing yoga and training for marathons LOL.
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I go through phases when it comes to racing. I was really motivated last year and signed up for a bunch of races this year but with training, I have found it hard to fit them into my plan. So besides my big race in 3 weeks, I am not very motivated at the moment.
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I am lucky to have a lot of choices.
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I don’t race that much. I find that some of the smaller races are where I find really cool swag. Chicago Marathon = nada beyond the shirt.
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But I hear Chicago is a great race and a great city to run in. Someday I hope to get there.
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Did someone say free food? Ha, I had the best post race food just this past weekend, take a look… bacon, eggs, biscuit, hashbrowns and sausage. How great was that! I am unashamed to say I ate just about every bite too!
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