Going International

Sorry I have been MIA lately, a lot going on around here. 4 major events within 2 and a half months and planning for next year's calendar can make a race director disappear for a while.

We kicked it all off with possibly the hardest event, The Biggest Loser Half Marathon and 5K, then two weeks later one of our most fun events, Run Scared 5K and then we just finished The Mustache Dache with over 2000 participants and in a couple of weeks we finish out the season with an awesome event, Girls on the Run 5K.

But, the upside to all this craziness now is a pretty good, well deserved break coming up. I am sitting here with my passport in hand signing up for international races! What fun! And what a different experience from signing up for local races.

Even though we come from a very litigious society where there are warnings on everything and for every event you sign away your life rights to the organizers, international events are not like that, but funny in a different way. I have been lucky enough to run in a few other international big events in the past and for almost every one of them I had to submit a doctor's note verifying I was healthy enough to compete. An interesting concept. What if a person gets the note, and then something happens, who gets sued!? The doctor?

Do we really think that this practice will reduce the number of medical instances out on the course. I have no idea really and would love to study the number of injuries and deaths in international races versus US races which typically do not require this step. But, quite frankly, I am too busy now to look into it, and I will just be happy to be eating a croissant on the streets of Paris after my marathon!

Another fun thing about signing up for a big international event is looking at the entrant's list, which one of my future events does post for all to see. Looking through that list and seeing only one Seattle, WA is fun. I guess I will have to run my hardest to represent.

It is thrilling to be planning my own personal running races, as opposed to planning them for you, my loyal and awesome participants. I love you all, but feels good to focus on myself for a little while. See you at the starting line, but please do not be faster than me, I really want to win my category of participants from Seattle, WA!