Marathon or Wedding?

Two weeks ago I registered for the Chicago Marathon. I've been planning on running it for a while. I even had a friend put together a year long training program designed around the Chicago Marathon in order to help me reach my goal of running it in under 4 hours.

This last weekend, our best friends got engaged! Yay!!! But they already booked the church for the SAME WEEKEND AS CHICAGO. There is no way I can participate in both.

Of course Chicago is nonrefundable, nontransferable. And all the arrangements are made. DH told me that I don't need to be at the wedding, that I should continue on with my plans. But, our friends already said they would reschedule their wedding so I can run Chicago. I REALLY don't want them to do that, but it tells me how much they want me to be there for their special day.

This is a no-brainer, right? I should be at the wedding. There are two local marathons in the fall I can run for the price it would cost me just to drive to Chicago.

I know you've been training and looking forward to the marathon for a while... But they are your best friends and hopefully they will only be getting married once. Marathons happen several times a year, and the Chicago one every year.

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Originally Posted by limewave

This is a no-brainer, right?

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Yup. :)
They're only going to get married once (one hopes). Unless this is your single biggest athletic goal in life andyour only shot at it, for some reason, I'd say wince, let it slide for this year, and go enjoy your best friends' wedding.

That's what I was thinking! But DH keeps insisting I don't need to be at the wedding. He's a guy . . .

Now, the question is, what marathon to replace it with????
NCT Marathon
or GR Marathon

Glad you're going to find a substitute marathon, limewave.

if your friends are offering to move the wedding for you (I don't know if they put a deposit down on the church already), then they want you there enough to probably be hurt if you choose the marathon over going to their wedding despite what DH says :)

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Originally Posted by limewave

That's what I was thinking! But DH keeps insisting I don't need to be at the wedding. He's a guy . . .

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And we all know guys can be a little obtuse sometimes. :D

Veronica

send them a nice gift!

I agree with everyone....but I will say that I missed a wedding that I was invited to be in for my ironman. BUT in my defense, I signed up 1 year in advance (and pretty much started training!!), and they asked me about 5 months ahead of time. The bride told me that she LOVED that one of her friends was bad s$$ enough to do and Ironman, and she totally wanted me to do that instead. Granted, Ironmans are really really expensive, planned way ahead of time (nearly impossible to replace because they fill up a year in advance), and I called to have an open and honest conversation about the situation.

I agree with everyone you are making the right choice by doing a different one, but I thought I would fess up and say that I didn't make that choice, and it turned out ok :p

Ooh NCT marathon looks fun. Enough fun that I'm seriously looking at the website now.

GR is only a week or two later, right? So, it's not Chicago...but it's still a nice race and closer to home on a similarly flat course. :)

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Originally Posted by zoom-zoom

GR is only a week or two later, right? So, it's not Chicago...but it's still a nice race and closer to home on a similarly flat course. :)

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GR is the weekend after Chicago (or the wedding). Timing wise, its a good option. Although, it would only be 2 weeks before Iceman :eek:

NCT Trail marathon is really intriguing to me. I'd have to adjust my training schedule by a few weeks, but its early enough that wouldn't be a problem. And it would give me time to recover and train on the mountain bike.

Also, I could do either marathon for less than the cost of gas to drive to Chicago! Both good, fun options.

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Originally Posted by limewave

Also, I could do either marathon for less than the cost of gas to drive to Chicago! Both good, fun options.

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Sounds like an easy decision to me! :D

you can sell your bib... although it's illegal and I might get grief on here for doing it.... but honestly, if you're not in the top 100 of the race, does it really matter:rolleyes:

I had a marathon entry and then they found a tumor in my neck:eek:, so I was cut off from all sports activity that summer. I sold my entry.

You can put up a sale on craiglist or another runner forum and you can sell it for cost or under or even a profit if that's what you want. I always sold mine for cost just to get my money back. Print out your confirmation, etc... so they can get the running packet come race time, etc...

or (I just thought of this), can't you defer your entry to next year? I'm thinking you can... check into that. Defer it to 2012, and find another one to run this year :)