How far will you drive for a race?

I drove almost 12 hours to get to Virginia Beach Labor Day weekend for a 1/2 marathon. And I've also driven to New Orleans (8 hours) for a race. But most of them are within a 2-3 hour range of Atlanta.

The only time I'm willing to drive to cheer on another runner is a major competitive event such as the U.S. Men's Marathon Championships in Birmingham last year or the Men's Olympic Trial qualifier this year (in Feb) also in Birmingham. Birmingham is a 2 1/2 tp 3 hour drive depending what part of Atlanta you live in.

I drove from Ft. Worth to Leadville, Colorado to do a trail marathon, and a month later, drove back to Colorado Springs to do the Pikes Peak Marathon.

I like the idea of making a vacation out of a marathon destination. I would like to go to northern California sometime to do a Redwoods marathon.

I'd fly to another country to race as long as it was a country I'd want to explore. I'd love to do a marathon in Ireland. I've only raced in IN and WI thust far. As far as supporting a friend in a race, if I had the vacation time I'd be there. I'd race with the friend, though, that would be twice as fun. :thumbsup:

I've thought a lot about this in the last couple weeks, seeing as Madtown is rapidly approaching, and honestly, I can say I really don't give a c**p about having to "justify" traveling somewhere where my running friends are going to be racing by having to race myself. I don't particularly LIKE racing anymore, I put too much mental pressure on myself and it really sucks all the joy out of running, to coin a phrase by a like-minded friend. I didn't always feel that way, and I often ended up racing and finishing very crappily because I wasn't really ready to run that distance but felt that I "had" to run in order to have a reason to go see my friends. But you know, don't any of us ever go on a trip anywhere just to visit a friend or family member because you want to see them? What difference is it whether said friend or family member is a runner or not? For me personally, it doesn't make any sense to make myself miserable for weeks leading up to the race just so I can say "look everyone, I'm racing too!" when I really don't want to. I'm undecided at this point as to whether I want to race in Madison or not. I might run while I'm there, I did when I went to Ireland in October, but for me the race is the smallest part of the whole trip, so...who knows? :shrug: And if I'm alone in feeling that way, that's fine too. I'm still going to do what makes me happy. :)