I get asked frequently ‘which race is the best?’ Actually, there is no good answer to this question, as it depends on your personal preferences and variety of factors. Here are some main issues to consider:
- Distance
- Local or destination
- Timing
- Weather
- Terrain
- Scenery
- Race setup and atmosphere
Distance
First things first: what distance do you want to race? I have heard people say things like ‘oh, I want to run a marathon!’, but after further scrutiny, it turns out that they have no time or desire to put in the training it would require. 26.2 is also not much of a beginner distance (although I’m that weirdo that never raced anything other than participating in a couple of fundraising 5ks before I got to the starting line of my first marathon). Maybe starting with something shorter, like a 10 miler or a half marathon would be better? Not that there is anything wrong with 5k or a 10k – all noble pursuits. So figure out what goal you are pursuing. After all, how are you going to choose a race if you don’t know how far you want to run 😉
Local or destination?
Do you want to race close to home or travel some place cool and run there? Obviously, each has its own perks and drawbacks. When you do a local race, you get to sleep in your own bed, eat food you are used to (home cooked?) and have your friends and family around for support. You can also get the opportunity to check out the route beforehand. You are also already accustomed to the weather and altitude. There really aren’t true drawbacks to racing close to home.
But you can always do better, right? First of all, if you are going for a longer distance or specific type of a race, there may not be one near home. Or none of them work with your schedule. Destination races allow you to choose the exact type of the race you are interested in. You can look for specific features you want, such as flat course or cleaner air (some places have such awful air pollution that running a marathon there isn’t really advisable). Flip side of the coin: you may end up in much higher altitude than you are used to, causing you problems like altitude sickness or racing in weather conditions you are not accustomed to (example: I ran Disney Marathon in over 80F weather in January, when it was snowing back home – literally, I got emails from friends with pictures of them shoveling snow). Another potential benefit of a destination race: if you stay in a recommended hotel, they may have logistics of getting you to the race taken care of and you don’t have to look for parking or anything like that (been there, done that, too). On the other hand, you may be in a place where it’s hard to get. I had that issue twice. Once was in Vermont: apparently cabs and Uber are not really a thing there at 6am on Saturday. The other time was trying to get back to my hotel in Disney Springs in the marathon. I know, some of that was self-inflicted because I didn’t plan right. But hey, my stupidity can serve as a warning for all of you and save you potential headaches 😉.
Timing
This would be the natural next question: when do I want to run the race? It’s particularly relevant for longer races, such as a marathon. If it’s your first race (or coming back from longer break or injury), you should take good stock of your current shape and figure out how long you will need to get to the appropriate shape. Keep in mind that most plans assume that you have been running 20-30 miles per week for a while and then you extend your long runs by about 1 mile per week until you get to 20 miles. You should probably also build in some margin of error into your plan. Life happens: you may get sick, have an unplanned business trip or one of many other obstacles that will prevent you from doing an important workout. Honestly, over the period of 3 months, odds are not really in your favor.
There is one more consideration for timing of the race: what time of the year do you want the race to take place in. And I don’t just mean that you are deciding if you’re going to run in, say, VA in the summer or fall. You also have to keep in mind need to train for the race. For example: if you live in, Alaska, training during winter months may be hard, making a spring race inadvisable. On the other hand, if you live in place that gets insanely hot in the summer, you may prefer to train during winter months, making a spring race easier to train for.
Weather
Oh, I have a lot of feelings on this one… I happen to deal poorly with weather, especially heat and humidity and it shows in my results. The coldest marathon I have done was Philadelphia and it was my PR. My hottest race was Disney and I was fully convinced that I was going to die. It took me weeks to recover after that one!
This is usually a pretty easy question to ask yourself before choosing the race: what weather can I race in? I recall seeing on Kona Marathon website multiple mentions that this is not one to attempt PR because it will be hot and humid, so unless you are used to training in these conditions, take it easy. On the other hand, you may have lived all your life in hot weather and the idea of running in gloves, hat and jacket appears preposterous. Not to mention not owning appropriate gear! So checked the typical weather on race day for the area you are looking at before committing.
Terrain
Terrain can mean a couple of different things when it comes to races. For one thing, you need to choose between trail runs and road races. I happen to be a big fan of paved surfaces, but it’s not for everybody. You also have to keep in mind that asphalt gets hotter than trails, so it may impact your decision when it comes to how hot of a weather you can take on race day.
You may also be a fan of hills. Or be worried that hills will kill your knees (mine hate when I run much on hills). Flat races will give you better paces. Some even end up with overall downhill. Before you look at the overall tendency, check the profile of the run. Otherwise you might end up going up and down rolling hills for 26.2 miles. I have to admit that I underestimated severely hilliness of Baltimore when I ran my first marathon and my knees hurt. I also did Luray triathlon and somebody swore to me beforehand that triathlons are done in flat places. Now I know better… It was definitely not as advertised…
And let’s not forget about road races versus trails. I usually hurt myself when I run on trails, so that’s not an option for me. But many people prefer it. Just keep in mind that trail running is more tiring than road running, so if it’s your first marathon or half marathon, you may want to make sure first that you can do it.
Scenery
I already hinted about it when talking about destination races. Some people like to have nice scenery around when they run for a while and some don’t particularly care. I recently saw some meme online showing runners feet and a tiny bit of a road with caption ‘what I actually see when I run’. They have a point… Before you decide you want to go off and run in some scenic destination, go for several runs and make sure you will actually be looking around and that it is something that you value. It may be. Or you may find out that pretty views don’t do a thing for you when you run.
Race setup and atmosphere
Some races are huge and attract crowds. Some, on the other hand, are small and pretty lonely. To my surprise, I learned that Disney Marathon, for example, doesn’t have many supporters along the route. It may have something to do with the ungodly start hour… On the other hand, they have characters you can take pictures with and that’s pretty cool. I didn’t expect much from Vermont City Marathon, but it turned out that it’s like the biggest event of the year in that town and people are basically stuck wherever they are, so everybody comes out and cheers. There were many bands playing music, residents were out banging on trashcans and playing radios. There was so much energy going on in there! Not everybody is into crowds. Some people genuinely don’t care. But for me, it invigorates me. I also use the crowd noise to help me move.
Setup may have nothing to do with crowds, although probably will. Larger, better established races are more likely to have good logistics. The best logistics I have ever seen goes, without a doubt, to Marine Corps Marathon. They were PREPARED. And I mean they had procedures for everything. Their medic tents had basically sets of first aid kits for issues you may encounter. Dehydration? Here is your bag! Period cramps? There you go! Chafing? We were expecting you! It also helped that there were huge, strong Marines ‘parked’ everywhere ready to carry you off if need be (I saw them jump out of nowhere at the finish line to carry off a runner who started to faint). It’s been a while and I am still in awe. Disney deserves an honorable mention here, too. They had heat wave move in and it was getting worse as the day neared. They increased frequency of water stations from every 3 miles to every 1 mile overnight. That’s something! On the other hand, when I ran in Philadelphia, I wanted an Ibuprofen (old injury flaring up) and I couldn’t find a medic station for a long time and even then, it was basically a table with two elderly ladies just sitting there. Philly did do a lot right, don’t get me wrong. But medics were not one of them. So that others get dissed appropriately as well: Marine Core Marathon had huge issues with port-a-potties. Since the run was along the National Mall, there were huge lines of tourists everywhere. It was really hard to stop and pee when you needed to. Spectators were nice and let runners in, but the port-a-potties quickly got dirty and ran out of toilet paper. Not awesome…
So which race should you choose? Well, make a list of all the factors that matter to you and then you can use page like https://race-find.com. You just plug in your requirements and with enough limitations, choice may get really easy.
Good luck! And I hope you enjoy races you choose 😊