Why did I start this race?

“I should have never started this race.” I thought to myself.

It was 8 days before the Wizard Run Philadelphia and we were only 4.9% to our registration goal.

5 months earlier I had received a call and decided that a new December race would be a welcome addition to Philadelphia’s running calendar.

So I spent months working on the event. I handed out flyers, hung up posters and paid marketing experts to promote the event.

Months of hard work and we were still way below our goal.

The event would be a failure.

I had let down my team, my friends, my family and my community. I would lose money and get publicly embarrassed… at the event I started.

Great job Ian!

The truth was I just wasn’t that good at promotion. I didn’t understand it and organizing a race without understanding promotion is a bit like trying to win a basketball game without knowing how to make a shot.

Sure, you could play great defense, throw perfect chest passes, dribble up the floor and have the best cheerleaders. But at the end of the day, the ball needs to go in the basket to score points and win the game.

So I had a decision to make:

1. Wave the white flag: cancel the event and accept failure

2. Be courageous: put on a brave face, show up at the event and eat the cost

It felt like a lose/lose.

If you know me, you know that I like to find out of the box creative solutions. So I kept thinking.

Maybe there was a third option. Maybe I could avoid the public embarrassment. Maybe I could prevent being a miserable failure. Maybe I didn’t have to let down my team, my friends, my family and my community.

I was stressed out.

I kept thinking.

Finally, I thought of the third option.

I went online.

A cheap flight to Miami was boarding in 1 hour.

I bought the ticket.

I flew to Miami.

I drank the night away.

I forgot about my worries.

This would be a tomorrow problem.

Tonight, I would have some fun.

— Ian