Today I was wondering something about people who only race $ races. I guess the more "elite" you get the less you race because you are saving your self for a bigger goal race down the road. On that same note, isn't it all about having fun?
I could not imagine running maybe 3-4 races an entire year and being happy. Waking up early or running late in the night doing track workouts and long tempo's by your self for no apparent reason. Maybe those more elite athletes are afraid to go out and not do as expected everytime so they don't want to disgrace their name perhaps.
Just observing, it seems that a lot of the faster athletes have a 1-2 month span where they are on fire and then they either get hurt or they are "fried" from all of the work. I have a tendency to actually not run hard enough with my runs, perhaps limiting my ability and my race times but on that note I am never "injured" and never HAVE to take time off. I just keep in my normal state with maybe a fartlek or tempo type run once a week or maybe not.
Is pushing your self for gratification and $, worth missing out on a sport that you love a couple months out of the year because you injure your self? I wonder what percpective other people have on this subject. Some friends of mine race every weekend whether its a triathlon, duathlon or a road race because they just love the environment. Running is fun and if I am not running with people or chatting after runs then its just not the same. After races some people choose to run a cool down solo and keep to them selves, not sure if this is because they think they are too good or possibly they just aren't socially capable to be around a group of people.
So, do you race only for $ or do you race for fun and commraderie? I enjoy meeting new people as often as I can, so i tend to race more than perhaps i should but its fun. Recently I won a bottle of wine in a fancy wooden box at the Greek fest 5k for being 5th place, I can say I was very disappointed with my showing. This would make me think about hiding in the shadows until I am certainly in tip top shape, so I can see that point of view.
Why do you race, why would you race and how often do you race?
I love to race as often as I can but I also realize that the more often that I race, the harder it is to run those really fast times. The body just starts to wear down from the intensity of racing frequently.
ReplyDeleteSo it becomes a balancing act for me and racing every 2 to 3 weeks seems to work for me.
As for racing only for the money, I have never been good enough to just race for money, but if I do win a little, it is always a nice perk.