When you go to sign up for a race, it may serve you well to pause before you push submit. Think about why you are signing up. There are many reasons for racing. You may want to race because friends are racing and it is a social thing. You might be wanting to achieve a new race distance, maybe you’ve never run a full marathon and it is something you want to accomplish or you are stepping up from a 5k to a 10k. Some people like to travel and experience the city with a race. Maybe you get excited by the bling of a race, a new shiny medal, t-shirt, and sometimes even the swag is pretty great.

If your desire is to reach for a new PR, there are some extra things to think about. When you’re chasing a new personal best, less is more in terms of races.  If your goal is to get faster, take it from the elite runners. Elite runners do not race many races in one year. As a rule, they are very particular about how many races they run. Most of them have their “A” race and that may be it for the year. The longer the race, the less they run. Elite marathoners will do one, and very occasionally, two marathons within a calendar year.  

It is very easy to get caught up in the planning of your race calendar and run many, many races. We recommend taking some time to evaluate your reason for racing. If you truly want to give your training cycle all you have, you’ll need to limit the number of races you participate in. A race (even a 5k) requires a bit of a taper and then recovery. Whether these are only a few days or a few weeks, it will affect the time you have to dedicate to your training. Those are weeks that you aren’t able to get the full training effect. The effects of this can take away from the larger goal. On top of that, a race is draining. Putting your body through the rigors of a race, even if you are not giving it your full effort, can leave it weakened and more susceptible to injury.  

If you have decided you are ready to think new thoughts about your races and make big goals, it might be time to re-evaluate the way that you race. Decide what you want. Make a plan from there. Then attack that plan!