A Fork in the Road with my Running

I mentioned earlier on this blog that regardless of the outcome, yesterday's marathon in Hawthorne would be a fork in the road regarding my future running...and walking, for that matter.  After skipping it in the end for a number of reasons, severe insomnia being the chief one, it still holds true. Number one, I will not enter a future race that requires an extensive amount of preparation, including tapering my training for days beforehand and ingesting excessive carbs to build up glycogen stores.  I will avoid marathon races like Sunday's where organizers discourage walkers and place unreasonable caps on finishing times. This is because I've decided (after this fork in the road) that if I do any future marathons, walking will take up a substantial portion of my efforts.  Another outcome of this weekend is that I intend to be more selective about the races I sign up for and that I need to do more weekend outdoor training...equally mixed running and walking...in my surrounding neighborhoods, with a run/walk lasting possibly several hours.  The ratio of running to walking will depend in part on the weather conditions...I intend to be flexible in that regard. It's a shame that in north Central Florida, where we once had a tradition of two great marathon races...the Ocala Marathon and Gainesville's Five Points of Life Marathon...we're left with three races in Hawthorne, each covering the same remote trail eight times on a 3.27-mile-long there-and-back course with the organizers capping finishing times or discouraging walking...pathetic.  Well, I have my own priorities, and they exclude that sort of nonsense...