Why are all the good races full?

At the beginning of the month, when drafting my Goofy Challenge training schedule I decided that I wanted to run at least 1 half marathon during the 6 months of training. I figured October would be a great month to run a half. I researched half marathons in Maryland, D.C. and Florida from late September to the last week in October. I narrowed down my possibilities to Disney's Wine and Dine Half, Hershey Park's Half, Baltimore Running Festival's Half Marathon, and the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon. I had my heart set on registering for the Wine and Dine Half marathon, but of course my hopes were shattered when I read a Facebook post from Run Disney saying that the Wine and Dine Half Marathon was full! I was so sad but I got over it.

My next step was to considerthe Hershey Half Marathon (who wouldn't want to run a race where they give you Hershey's CHOCOLATE!) Once again, my dreams were shattered when I checked the registration page earlier this week and it said SOLD OUT!

Now, I have two options: the Baltimore Half Marathon and the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon. The Baltimore Half Marathon will be $95 in two days and the Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon is $85. However, there are many pros and cons associated with each. Baltimore wouldn't require any travel, where the Miami Beach Halloween Half would. Plus, I wouldn't want to use one of my traveling weekends for the sole purpose of completing a half, I rather visit my boyfriend. (Some background: I am completing my last year of law school this upcoming year- half in Baltimore and half in Florida. While in Baltimore, my primary focus is school and training and allow myself one weekend out of the month to travel to see my fabulous boyfriend). One of the cons of the Baltimore Half is that the course is full of hills, and hills are not a personal favorite.  However, as ridiculous as it sounds, the Baltimore Half is sponsored by Under Armour= awesome race shirts! At the end of the day, I really see myself registering for the Baltimore Half Marathon as the price is reasonable, the race is minutes away from my apartment, and my parents can drive to see me run it.

So my two conclusions of this entire situation are: (1) People have gotten the running bug and keep registering for the races I want to do and (2)I really need to sit down and nail down a final race schedule through January.