I am currently getting bombarded with notifications about 2022 races, that are open for sign-up.  I get e-mails, notifications on my phone, and numerous advertisements on social media.  When it comes to choosing races for next year however, it is important to think carefully, and not fall victim to hype or FOMO.

The reason race directors, and Ironman in particular, send out all these messages, is to create a buzz, and to get people to commit to (and pay for) events a year in advance.  The problem with signing up this far in advance, is that I have no idea how my life will be twelve months from now.  Last year proved that with the pandemic; my early year thoughts were very wrong.

This is how I typically think about planning my race calendar.  First, I try to decide roughly how many races I want to do in a year, and what single race I would do, if I only did one race.   I will center my race calendar around this one race.

Then I think about other life events that I will need to avoid, or that will have a big impact on either race day or training for it.  Things like known vacations, family events and other conflicts. This process gives me several ‘windows’ of time, where I might be able to race. 

Only after identifying ‘time windows’, will I start searching for possible races to do.  I personally tend to pick races based on things like location, and whether a race has some kind of iconic or historical status (e.g. Marine Corps Marathon, Ironman 70.3 Oceanside).  Only after thinking hard about my options, will I start to finalize a calendar.  Finally, I might also pencil in some smaller local races.  I try to use these as ‘training races’, as part of a build up to bigger races.

Choosing races for 2022, is particularly important for me, as I will ‘age up’ next year.  This gives me a better chance of getting into races that require ‘qualifying’.  I need to decide if I want to try and qualify for the Boston Marathon again.  Do I want to go all in and try and qualify for an Ironman World Championship?

There are so many aspects to choosing races, and I am only now starting to think about 2022.