I've entered my first race in a county that I've never run in before. In fact, I think it is a county I have never been in, although perhaps I drove through it on the way to Indiana at one time. Not sure.
The county is Darke, which is due north of where I live in Cincinnati. The race is a little 5k on Saturday morning, April 14, The Clayton Murphy 5k, in New Madison. The race is named in honor of Clayton Murphy, a young man from that area who earned the bronze medal in the 2016 Olympic 800 meter race. As an avid track fan, I've been following his career for a couple of years, so this race sounds a little more interesting to me than the average 5k. it will be an hour and a half one way trip to get there, so it had better be a little more interesting than usual!
I will do some research on what Darke County is known for (I suspect it is agriculture) and write more about this after I do the race. There doesn't seem to be a marathon currently in Darke County, so it's worth the drive to do this 5k on a day i have free.
I have a couple of other races I'm looking at as longer term goals in September. The Akron Marathon (Summit County) is on a Saturday at the end of September. That will give me a marathon to train towards. As it turns out, there is a little 5k (Believe in Dreams), in the neighboring Portage County on the Sunday after the marathon. Since these counties are in northern Ohio and will require an overnight stay, I figure it makes sense to do them back to back. Assuming I don't totally destroy myself in the marathon I should be able to walk or jog through a 5k the next morning. And, I already checked, it doesn't look like there's a marathon in Portage so I'm safe there.
Rather than stay in downtown Akron at one of the race hotels, I've found a less expensive Red Roof Inn out in the suburbs. I will earn points that I can use for dog shows at less than half the price of the race hotels. It's true that there is shuttle to the marathon to and from the race hotels, but there should be plenty of parking in downtown Akron (they say there is free parking all day in all the lots and garages) so I think this will work out.
It is starting to become apparent, however, that in running the counties I am going to see less of the actual counties than I did of the states I travelled to on the 50 state quest. Because I don't think I am going to be able to justify hanging around these places and touristing, especially for some of the races that are just a day trip there and back.
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