Looking back on the year, the first few months of 2011 were good for improving my fitness. I registered for 3 of 4 races in our Fraser Valley Trail Series. I will put these on my competition schedule again this year. Racing on trails has a way of making you mentally tough without beating up your body as badly. I would not suggest trail races for those looking to run their fastest time. My main race, going all out for time, will not be until the end of March. I have picked Around the Bay 30k. I have never raced this distance before so I am guaranteed to run a personal best time. I am travelling to Ontario for the event for the first time in over two years. I’ll use the trip as a chance to see family and friends.
Choosing races should be appropriate for the level of competition you are seeking. I break races into 5 levels of competition:
- Local - do not have to leave town to race, may be a good way to support a charity, run with a friend. The overall organization may be a bit softer and lead to slower times and a less exciting day.
- Regional – The event may be drawing from people from more than one city. It may be a bigger, more organized local event or possibly be out of town, but not by much. Ideally, you are able to travel to the event from home on race day. Hotels or alternate accomodation can be unnecessary, stressful, and even costly.
- Provincial – Here you are joining the big show! These events are often held as championship events for various road race titles. They may be the finale of a regional series. It may be a regional event that has a long history and tradition for attracting large numbers of participants and a high calibre competitors in each age group and overall male and female.
- National – There are a handful of races across the country that have been designated or are historically known as championship races for the elites. This is the fantastic thing about road races. Non elite runners are invited to participate as race organizers have identified that the more runners in the event, the bigger the spectacle. Last year at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the event was soldout (just like a coldplay concert) with over 20K participants of all levels and it was covered by cbc sports. The model allows for a blend of stories coming from the elite class field of professional runners to the lifestyle runner that is challenging themself to go the distance.
- International – these are the Biggies! Often termed destination races. This is the type of race that you have to use a passport to get into. You may require some sort of qualification standard to get in (like Boston). Most of us may not ever line get on the line for something of this scale. It is possible that an international event is your local race, obviously that is rare because there only a handful of world class runs.
There are many other factors that go into choosing a race. I start with this thought process and figure how much training I am prepared to do. At the store I often ask people how they came to chose the race they did, and it often boils down to the simple reason, because I can. How do you chose your races?
Jason
