On Tuesdays, I often link up with Kim and Zenaida for their Tuesday Topics. The only problem is, my posts are usually wildly off-topic. This week’s topic is: “You’ve won an all-expenses paid trip to run a race anywhere in the world. What race would it be?” As usual, I’m going to be a little off-topic. But this prompt coincides with something I’ve been thinking about lately.
A couple weeks ago I went to a wedding, and met a woman who lives in Utah. Well, Utah is my dream destination for a vacation. I follow Hungry Runner Girl and the photos of the trails she runs are so beautiful. I want to go to Zion National Park, and run in St. George.
As I was talking to my new Utah friend, it came up that I love trail running, and she said “We have some amazing trail races in Utah- you should come out and run one!” Yes! That would be incredible! Except for two things- mountains and altitude.
I live in South Florida, which is at sea level and 100% flat (except for the sand dunes that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere in my last race.) If I went to Utah to run a trail race, I think I would travel all the way there to have a terrible experience in a beautiful location.
On a related subject, lately I’ve been thinking of moving. Yes, moving to… wait. Where would I move to? I need to live in a very sunny location because I have serious SAD (which is how I ended up in Florida- I grew up near Chicago. Shudder.) My daughter is starting high school and all her friends are here. My husband, in addition to teaching school, is a freelance trumpet player and all his contacts and gigs are here. As much as I fantasize about moving, I have to embrace one of my favorite sayings, “Bloom where you’re planted.”
Florida isn’t perfect. It’s getting way too hot for me, and the politics are, well… ahem. But I live near the ocean! And the Everglades! As long as we can cope with the heat, we can run outside year-round. And there are beautiful trails not that far from me that I haven’t even begun to explore. It’s not “Utah beautiful” but it’s “Florida beautiful.”
So to answer the question, “You’ve won an all-expenses paid trip to run a race anywhere in the world. What race would it be?” My choice is the race I’m running in February, in central Florida. It’s on a “wild and scenic trail” that I’ve never seen before. There won’t be mountains, but there will be some grassy segments and some wet sections- things I can train for right here. It will be beautiful Florida terrain.
Maybe someday I’ll run every trail race in Florida (although I doubt it) and want to branch out. And maybe someday I’ll move, but I might end up staying right here. That would be pretty great, too.
Do you have a dream race? Or a dream vacation spot?
Where would you live if you could live anywhere? Or are you happy right where you are?
40 Responses
It sounds like Florida is the right place for you. I think it’s easier to have a good race closer to home, well for me it is anyway because I find travel a bit hard. Although my 10km PB was at the Gold Coast marathon festival so I guess I can travel and still perform, but having to deal with a timezone change and long 24+hours flying makes racing overseas a less attractive proposition for me.
My husband and I had this conversation, and I couldn’t imagine living anywhere except Melbourne. It does get a bit cold in winter, although not compared to other places. (rarely goes below zero overnight). Vitamin D supplementation is required over winter. I am enjoying our time in the warmer weather at Noosa, though, but Melbourne is where my heart is.
I’d like to do the Sydney city to surf one year. When my husband did the Paris marathon, my daughter and I did the breakfast run the day before which was pretty cool. Starting at the Louvre and finished at the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t a race though, there was a DJ on the pacer truck at the front and it was more like a slow running party.
I agree that I wouldn’t want to travel for a big race- that’s a lot of added stress. Traveling for a fun run would be great though.
I’m glad you love where you live!
I really want to take the kids to Hawaii, but I am working through my fear of flying. I want to move houses in Madison, but we likely will not (5 kids to go through college, etc), so this bloom phrase is top of mind for me lately.
Oof, 5 kids to get through college… you have your work cut out for you. You’ve got time though! Just be glad none of them are twins or triplets (I know people in that situation and I don’t know how they do it!)
Bloom where you are planted is also one of my favourite sayings, Jenny. And I really like your attitude. Maybe when your daughter graduates and your husband retires, you can think about a different locale, but for now, keep blooming in Florida! (that’s kind of what’s happening in my house, except exchange daughter for son).
I have long wanted to hike in Utah and that may be in the works in the next year or so. There are so many places in the world I want to travel to. My number one would be Tanzania, or perhaps South Africa. My whole life, I have wanted to see all the big animals. I also want to go to Morocco quite badly. I’d love to explore much more of North America. With our upcoming move, and “new life” we will be travelling a lot, I hope.
With regards to the winter – it’s very cold but very sunny here in the winter, but the days are super short, so I supplement enormously with Vitamin D. Like, 2500IU. It helps for sure.
Ooh, I’m excited for you! I hope you travel to all these places and blog about it so I can live vicariously.
I wouldn’t like the cold, but a sunny winter would be nice. The US midwest is soooo gray in the winter.
Aww, I love this. I think it’s quite beautiful to love where you are. To know what you want, and to recognize that you have it. That’s really special.
(I have heard that the Denver area is VERY sunny, though. In case you ever decide to seek your fortune in a northwesterly direction.)
I really like where I am. It’s pretty central, we get four discernible seasons, we have lots of amenities and access to airports that can take us wherever we want to be. Sometimes when I dream, I think about living in a quaint European village or maybe in a ski resort, but I think those are probably more fun as fantasies than as reality.
Thinking even more granularly, I love my house and my neighborhood, but I feel increasingly annoyed at the things they lack. Namely, a mudroom and more green space. I feel internal and financial pressure to bloom here, but maybe it’s time to find a new garden???
Yes, I know you’re looking for a new house! You can’t really bloom without a mudroom (ha ha.) And I have thought about Colorado- I know it’s really sunny. I think it’s also really expensive to live there!
Oh, I hear you about the Florida politics; one of my friends recently asked, delicately, how I’m doing down here in the sea of red. I moved here (5 years ago) to get away from snow, and to be with my mom, and both of those were more important to me, but ugh, yes. I do think it can help to focus on the positive in your situation.
I’m pretty sure my county is still blue… but we all have the same governor. Sigh.
You are speaking my language! Last year if you’d asked me how I liked where I live, my answer would have been “my family lives here”. Then I started getting out and exploring and found out that WHOA WE HAVE COOL STUFF HERE.
Now with that said, I would love to go to Utah to see all of the HRG sites and to spend some time out west because I’ve never been there. Right now my husband can’t be away from home for very long because of Boy Scouts, but in a few years it’s going to be a different story. I can hold out until then, especially since I have a ton of local exploring left to do.
So we’re on the same page. Appreciating where we’re at but also longing to take a trip to Utah. I think everyone who reads HRG probably wants to go to Utah.
I’d love to live in a low-maintenance property close to the ocean. My husband is Portuguese, so I can see ending up in Southern Portugal in our retirement stage. (Though I do love Nova Scotia.) But the key is having almost NO upkeep on a house. I love the idea of polished concrete floors, one level, and being able to live in flipflops (or, better yet, bare feet) all year long.
That would be NICE! Where you live is pretty incredible too though (except for the winters- I wouldn’t be able to survive the Canadian winters!)
Over the past two years I have also thought about moving, but I always come back to not wanting to be too far away from my parents so i stick around. I hate the hot weather so if I ever were to move it would still be someplace in the Northeast or maybe somewhere in in the midwest like Chicago.
Not so fast! Chicago gets really hot in the summer. If you were to move maybe you should pick somewhere like the northwest… I don’t know. I guess everywhere gets hot sometimes.
This is like the question about if you could move anywhere for a year or two, where would you go? Like, I’d stay in my house where my pets, things, and in the town where my friends are? I don’t like the logistics of traveling, though, so I think it’s clear that even if I had to go somewhere else, I’d probably pick someplace where I already know some people. Ha!
I guess it’s kind of a personality test. Are you adventurous, or do you like comfort and routine? I definitely trend toward the latter.
I would love to get away from the Winter in Chicago. I hate the snow. But I know that no location is “perfect”. I like it here because it is where almost all of my family lives (one sister lives in Mexico and another one in San Antonio).
My sister still lives near Chicago, and she and her husband love Illinois and don’t want to move anywhere else. So, I guess it’s all a personal choice.
It is definitely hard to train for a hilly race at altitude where you live. The few times I’ve run out west in. Colorado and Salt Lake, I was dying! Altitude is a killer
It’s funny how timely a post can be for a person! This post speaks to ME! I studied abroad but decided to come back home as Botswana is fantastic for raising kids. But lately I’ve been feeling a bit itchy to move – and then I think where? Botswana is not perfect (and I’m not liking the current political situation here), but there are so many things I do love and it’s okay to bloom right here! But I do love travelling – so to answer your question, a dream spot I’d love to visit — India! And a dream race – from reading all the running blogs, I would say the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler – I love all the pinks people wear, and I fill I’d fit right in, LOL! And one that is closer to home would be the Cape Town Marathon.
Oh, that’s funny because I always think you live in such an interesting place! But I’m probably also thinking of all the places you’ve traveled to… I don’t know what it’s like to actually live in Botswana. Sounds like Florida in a couple ways (ha ha…)
I like where I live except for the long winters. It’s convenient to travel to NYC Boston and Montreal. I can go to Florida to visit friends to escape winter.
I don’t want to leave my friends. It’ll be great if I were rich enough to have more than one house.
Utah is awesome. I want to go back now that I’m a runner.
I did race in Paris and that was my dream.
It’s great that you’ve discovered trail running. And that you found a perfect race.
Yes, that’s really the solution- have two homes. I know a lot of people who spend their winters down here and their summers up north. Lucky people!
Same… so I can visit them in the winter.
I would also like to go to Utah with my husband for a hiking trip. I looked into it back in 2019/early 2020 as I was feeling ready to think about a trip away from the kids. But I quickly realized that the logistics are challenging unless you pay up for a plane ticket and fly into like St. George or something like that. So I determined that we could not do a 2-3 night type of trip and do the area justice. So maybe in a few years, if my parents healthy continues to be ok, we can do a week trip to Utah to see the national parks.
I don’t have any dream races now that marathon training is behind me (because of kids and because I don’t want to have surgery on my other hip and that is the path I was going down if I kept running high mileage as I have an anatomical issue that, combined with lots of running, results in the labral tear). When I was training for a marathon, the Big Sur marathon seemed like it would be amazing, or even the half. BUT it’s a spring race which is terrible timing for Minnesotans unless you are super hearty and will run in -20F temps or something like that. I have tried to talk myself into training for a spring race and it all seems great on paper but then the weather arrives and I’m miserable. I know you have tough running conditions now but I think I could suffer through a FL summer more than I could suffer through dangerously cold temps! Granted, there are people I know who run in those temps but some of them wear crazy contraptions on their face so they can breath in the cold air – like Darth Vader type of get ups.
I love the bloom where you are planted concept, though. Find the good where you are if you can’t change where you live. That takes some emotional maturity/good mental health. I did NOT have that maturity or frame of mind when I lived in Charlotte for a year 10 years ago, though… Minnesota is wonderful this time of year but kind of God awful in the winter months. I don’t think we will retire here but I don’t where we we’d end up. Maybe Colorado? I like that they get so much sunshine, it’s a progressive state, they have great hiking, etc. But the moving away stage of retirement is so far off for us since our youngest is 2. 😉 If I wasn’t factoring in cost, I think Santa Barbara would be ideal. It’s a fun, cool little city with a great vibe, close to the ocean and the mountains. But it is hella expensive!
Yes, I think the absolute best places to live are hella expensive. Colorado would be a good choice though!
I definitely agree that Florida summers are easier to run in than Minnesota winters. That’s what I tell myself every time I go out for a hot, sweaty run- it’s better than 40 below. And once again, that’s the problem with a lot of these “dream” races- the logistics of training for them make it unrealistic.
Long time reader, first time commenter!
The bloom where you are planted idea is such a good one, we can’t always change our circumstances but we can change how we approach them. But if you do have the opportunity to move somewhere else, I think Arizona might be a good option for you! The weather is similar to FL (at least in southern/central AZ) with very hot summers but we don’t get the humidity here and the winters are much more mild and cool without being cold. And even though FL is called the Sunshine State, apparently AZ is actually the sunniest state! I definitely need the sunshine to thrive as well, I can’t imagine living somewhere with a lot of cloudy days. Arizona also isn’t as expensive as a lot of western states and we’re getting more blue (our new governor is a Democrat). Plus the trails are absolutely amazing! I’m a trail runner and just ran my first ultra this spring and cannot recommend the trails in AZ enough. Phoenix and Tucson both have tons of trails within and surrounding the cities and you can run on everything from smooth, flatter trails to more technical trails on mountains! Plus you can get a taste of higher altitude running and beautiful forests and mountains in northern Arizona just a couple hours drive away. We don’t have the ocean sadly but it is within a 4-5 hour drive!
Alright, you’ve convinced me! Seriously, it sounds perfect. The funny thing is, when I was deciding to move to Florida I also seriously considered Phoenix. Over the years I’ve wondered about that decision and thought about how different my life would be if I had chosen AZ. At this point, I would give up the ocean for all the other things you mentioned.
Thank you so much for reading and commenting!!!
I haven’t figured out where I want to live. I like it here (Northern California, Bay Area) but it is very expensive and with climate change I get tired of drought and wildfires. But I don’t know where else to go. Sigh. Western France is so beautiful, or even outside of Paris. But I can’t afford to move, our family is here, I think the work restrictions might be complicated, and I don’t speak French. But I am definitely a Francophile as I age.
Northern California seems like a dream location to me- but I know it’s VERY expensive. And yes- drought and wildfires would be tough to deal with. I guess nowhere is perfect.
I would love to run a trail race with good view, shaded, near the ocean, that is not steep as I don’t do well with downhill.
it’s interesting to hear your thoughts of where you’d live. I think once the kids are off to college, one can be more flexible to choose where to live. I definitely want to live near the ocean.
One of the reasons I moved to Florida was to be near the ocean. So, I would probably miss it if I moved away.
Yes, when the kids are older we’ll definitely have more flexibility. And who knows… if we have grandchildren at some point that could be a factor too.
I’d love to run Boston (but just because I love the city, not because I think I can qualify LOL)… and I do want to run one of the NP races, because there sure are a few beautiful races out there. I agree though: you’d have to come prepared for the altitude and mountains! It’s a very different terrain.
I sometimes dream about moving although I love where we live somewhere right in the middle between the mountains and the ocean, but not close enough to take advantage of either on a regular day.
It seems to me that you live in a PERFECT place! It’s funny- there’s always something that could be better, I guess.
I’m pretty happy living in Florida – the only way to turn our state blue is to stay and fight, right?! But I wouldn’t mind living in a place that has seasons, like North Carolina. Their winters don’t seem TOO horrible.
Dream vacation… I have so many! Internationally, I want to visit Paris and London and if we’re talking domestically, I really want to visit California.
Yes! California would be an amazing place to visit. I was in LA waaay back when I was 20, and also went to San Diego and Santa Barbara. But I’d like to go back as an actual adult, and see more Northern California.
Jenny, this hit home for me, particularly in reminding me to look for the good where I am, now. I’m not somewhere else, I am here. And there is good here. Will it be good for me forever? Probably not, but I can’t predict when that will happen, so thinking about it now probably doesn’t do me any favors! I only have myself to think about, but really love how you see your family as a whole. Not everyone does that… and it shows how close you all are, and how much you value each other’s happiness. You show that in pretty much every post … it’s just so crystal clear in this context. <3
Thank you, Anne! Yes, I’m not saying I’ll live here forever… but for now, it’s where I am so I have to embrace it and make it work.