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March Madness Race Style

I live in Indiana and the whole state is basketball cray cray.  I used to do a bracket and one year I was even successful, but without a school in the tournament it gets tedious...and I'm just not that big of a college hoops fan.  I like Brackets for Good, but helping your "team" win gets spendy fast...but then I saw the race bracket...
https://raceraves.com/march-madness-lunatic-style/?utm_source=FB&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=MM-Midwest+Region

I sent it to coach for amusement and his response was that it was a good place to start for planning a race year, except it obviously omitted his race 😝.  I sent back the ones that were on my *someday* list from the bracket and then a few others...but noted that his favorite race (Peachtree 10K) was probably too hot for me to run well - I am just not an Atlanta in July kinda girl, and that I would never qualify for Boston so those two just aren't on my list...

And of course because the Peachtree lotto is open right now someone posted that they have the best race shirt ever...I can't recall that I've seen it.  So far the Ottowa Marathon won that one (at least their last shirt).

But then I was thinking about the Indiana races in the "tournament" - Monumental and the Indy Mini - at least they weren't seeded against each other.  Monumental was up against Flying Pig.  Two great races.  Both really well done.  Monumental is my personal favorite race.  But the Pig expo is something to behold and there is something about pig butts on the medals and shirts that is awesome.  I think seeded differently Monumental could have made it out of the first round.  The Mini...it's one everyone should run...at least once.  And then I understand completely if it's not your gig.  It is the race I have run the most times...but I am not running it this year.  I am protesting their new seeding standard for preferred corrals and, as it happens, I will be in New York that weekend.  But it's a hometown race.  I love Des Moines, which it was seeded against, but I have run a half there, not the full.  I totally get how the Mini beat Des Moines in the first round...but absolutely agree with Flying Pig beating the Mini in the second round.  I wonder if Monumental and the Mini were up against each other in the second round who would have won - my heart says Monumental.  In the next round Flying Pig is up against the 5/3 Riverbank Run in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Flying Pig will win (and deserves to), but the Riverbank Run is a great race. I've run 5 of the races in the Midwest so that's the part of the bracket I have the most affinity for/opinion of.  I have *someday* races in the other divisions, but I haven't run any of them yet.

If you used the bracket to plan races, what would you choose?  Mine would be (other than the ones I've already run):
Route 66
Urban Bourbon
Bolder Boulder
Twin Cities
Marine Corps


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