Dead End

Heather

Alright so it’s a New Year, 2012, and everyone is talking about their goals for this year and I thought I would jump on this band wagon too.

This is what this post should say:

My goal race for 2012 is the Death Race!  I know some of you may be thinking “wait you said not ’til 2013” and you’d be right, but things change.  About a month after deciding to wait for 2013, I changed my mind and decided I just had to go back this year, plus Dan wants to do a different goal race in 2013 that requires traveling, so financially and time wise it just makes sense for me to go back to Grande Cache this year.  And I just really want to finish this race!

That exciting piece of news was waiting patiently to be posted but guess what?  It’s been scraped.  What? Why? you might ask.  Am I injured? Nope.  Did I miss registration? Nope.  Have you lost your job and have no money to do a far away race? Nope.  But work does have something to do with it.  I can’t get the time off!!  Seven freaking months in advance and I can’t get the time off because one of my co-worker’s WIFE is having a baby and he is taking 5 weeks off when the spawn is born!  What?  It’s not like he’s having the baby and seriously we work pretty sweet hours, I can understand a week or two but 5 weeks!  And here in lies the problem of working in a tiny little office with sweet hours, we have NO coverage.  Plus I feel like I’m being discriminated against because I don’t have an excuse like a kid, seriously if I wanted 5 weeks off in a row, I’d never get it, but if you’ve managed to reproduce, go ahead do what you like.  I’m tempted to fake a pregnancy so I can take a bloody year off like most of the women I work with have done at one point or another.

And yes, I’m well aware of what a whiny cow I sound like right now, but I nearly burst into tears when I realised I wouldn’t be able to go away for the Death Race (or the rest of the summer for that matter).  I know there are way worse things in life, I get it, I’m being a sulky baby because I’m not getting my way, and no amount of foot stamping is going to help.

And now I have nothing to look forward to this year, no goal race, my plans no longer make any sense.  Dan still gets to do his race and I will still support him through it all, but what about ME?  Running and sewing are my things (and I guess I’ll get a lot more sewing projects completed this year) but I enjoy having a running goal, actually I NEED a running goal otherwise I struggle to see the point at 5am on freezing Tuesday morning.

Many* of you are probably thinking “it’s still early” but one race that I would’ve happily done instead is already sold out!  The problem with ultra trail races is that there is only so much space and the spots sell quickly, you’ve got to be ready to get registered.  So now I have to start researching other races and hope that I can still get in or that they don’t take place during my new 5 week black out vacation period.

I guess the good news is that I can go ahead and open the bottle of wine tonight while I troll the internet tonight, I always make great decisions when I’m buzzed.

Anyone heard about any great races?

*I’m well aware that my family makes up the majority of our readers, but I come from a big family. (Love you guys!)