that's why I haven't pulled the trigger yet on Houston. I don't want to eat the $150 entrance fee

That's the quandary with the marathon; save a boatload of dough by registering early, or wait until the last price increase and pay twice the amount (in some cases). Get burned enough and paying the higher cost doesn't seem so bad.

1.5 mile run/walk tonight.  A little more running than last time.

Dave - with my hamstring issues, I've seen that fast running almost always makes it worse. If you really want to participate, can you volunteer?

 

Yep.

I actually volunteered last year when I was injured. I think it just makes me sadder that I can’t run it. But maybe.

 

Wow. I’ve been pretty lucky. I think the only race I’ve registered for and DNS’d was a $10 5k. This one was only $27 which is about as cheap as races usually get around here. Combination of luck and typically waiting to the last minute to register.

Yeah, two of them were just me registering really early and then changing my mind, one due to my dog's injury and surgery,  one due to a running injury and another just because training didn't go as expected, could've jogged it but nah

 

This is one situation where the Old Days helped with more races having race day registration.  With the size of many races now I understand why most no longer have that, but I would think the smaller local races could still do that.

In my experience, almost all races still do, with the exception of some of the larger marathons. It’s just usually more expensive.

MTA: how many oatmeal raisin cookies did you eat that day?

All of them!

You killed that thing.

I did race their inaugural mile that morning, one of two for me that year. I've raced exactly two since.

My first two years I registered for but didn't run a total of four races:  3 HMs and a 10k. One I had registered only a week before the race - then got injured 3 days later. I had done early registration for another race 6 weeks later but hadn't healed so it was a DNS. Then there was a New Year's Special where I registered for a September race really cheap, then got injured in July, and a December race that had half price early registration but I still wasn't healed, so I missed that one too. For the next few years, I only ran races I could register for at the last minute. My first marathon I signed up the day before, though I had been training for months. Fortunately the races around here are small enough you can do that. For my later marathons, I just took the risk. For a while I was seeing race insurance offered at registration that would refund your entry if you had to cancel, but I haven't seen that lately. Does it still exist?

That's an excellent question. I don't think I've seen that recently. They have started offering that for my kids' activities, though (sports activities). I've signed the up for that. To me it seems like a no brainer when it's something like downhill skiing that lasts for several months, and if they get injured or whatever, then at least you're not out that money. And with running related injuries, I could also seeing it being a wise move.

In my experience, you can either willingly take a break post marathon or wait til your body forces you to take one.  Of course, some people seem to be exceptions to this rule.