Four years ago in January Les took a job working for a company based in Hawaii. We spent most of 2013 in a rented Waikiki condo. 2014 and 2015 were filled with back and forth travel. 2016 we spent nine months renting part of a house in Hawaii Kai. We've already made two trips to Oahu this year. On top of the Hawaii trips, Les visits clients here on the mainland and attends industry conventions. I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to work a paying job and can tag along often.
Plans for a busy June are starting to firm up. Les will be in four states/three time zones in the first week and a half of June. We are also planning to go back to Hawaii some time in June. Oh, and I have a marathon scheduled on June 10th. As our plans have firmed up, my "racecation" was looking more and more like a solo endeavor or a flyby. I have never been to Utah and really wanted a few days to see at least part of the state.
I checked the race website and saw a "defer" option. I can defer to 2018 or 2019. Les will be flying home from a convention that takes place in Orlando. This particular event takes place each June and moves around the country each year. In 2018 it will be in Nashville. Les grew up there so we have tons of friends and family in the area so I definitely want to go on that trip. In 2019 the convention will be in Phoenix, considerably closer to Utah. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made to defer to the 2019 race. There was a $15 change fee, but with so many "nonrefundable, nontransferable" races out there, this seemed like the right decision. I wasn't going to let my free entry fee go to waste!
In case you're wondering, Les never even suggested that I not race. He
would have flown from Orlando to Salt Lake City (about 50 miles from Provo) just to be there. This would have
meant him being home about 48 hours the entire month of June.
Some things just don't make sense no matter how much you want them to.
I've been a runner for over 20 years. In that time I've run a total of nine races. That probably seems strange to some people, but I'm okay with it. I ran 2600 miles one year and didn't run a single race! I don't regret the training I've done. It's gone well, not great, but good enough that I know I could have finished the marathon. But the expenses to just go there, race, and come back home were adding up to more than I wanted to commit to. So... Utah Valley Marathon 2019 here I come!
Right now I don't know if I'll try to run a marathon this year. We tentatively have something really big on the calendar for this Fall so I'll just wait and see. If we're on Oahu when they are having any of marathon readiness races I might do one of those because they are usually 12-15 miles and the registration fee is pretty small for last minute decisions.
Do you or any of your family members do a lot of business travel?
Ever deferred a race?
No comments:
Post a Comment