I entered the lottery to be able to run the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco this fall, and I received an email a couple of days ago that I didn’t make it in. That was disappointing because I had hoped to run 3 half marathons and 2 full this year, and the Nike Women’s is supposed to be fantastic, especially since guys in tuxes wait at the finish line with Tiffany-designed necklaces as finisher medals.

So I’ve started to look around for other events, but I was getting excited about the Carlsbad 5000, which is this weekend. It’s supposedly the world’s fastest 5k run, and D.J. and I were going to run it together. I had planned to run 14 with the team on Saturday then run the 3.1 on Sunday. But this morning at track, my coach said no.

“You can either run the Carlsbad 5000 or you can run the mileage on Saturday,” he said. “You cannot do both. And if you’re really in this for the marathon, you should do the mileage and not the race.”

My mind was racing as he talked, trying to figure out how to get around his advice. Sometimes he suggests things; other times he outright says no. Today he was saying no.

“You have to trust me on this, Beth.”

Ugh! This sucks so much… I’ve been psyching myself up for the race and looking forward to setting my Personal Record for a 5k at below 30 minutes. I’m at 34 right now, but I’ve been working my rear off. Argh!

I’m in the same place with several decisions about my freelance copywriting business right now. I did three presentations in the last week, and I adore them. After the presentation yesterday, a coordinator for a February event came up and asked me if I would do the same program for his group in Vegas.

“I’d really love you there, but we don’t really have a budget. Would you do it for expenses?” This is a common practice in the association industry, and consultants regularly donate presentation time to gain exposure to potential clients.

I adore giving these presentations, and, like the Carlsbad 5000, I tend to sign up because I think they’ll be fun. But right now I don’t want to go fishing into deep waters for new clients. My To Do list this morning has 10 items, and 5 of them are writing projects. I’ve got to be very careful about overextending myself with new projects.

So, in the interest of the big picture, I’m going to skip the Carlsbad 5000 and run my 14 miles on Saturday instead. And, to keep looking toward my business future, I’m going to limit my presentations and travel time unless I can make the equivalent of staying home and working.

Note to D.J. — The race is not off — It’s just postponed.