There were definitely days leading up to the event where I was just down and not sure if I could do it....even hours before the race. Sometimes you just have to man up and take what this life throws at you and respond to the best of you ability. A good friend reminded me that we aren't guaranteed to run again or do anything so we should just do it because we might regret it one day. And boy was she right, after completing my third half of the year I was very thankful I completed it. It was my worst time out of the 10 half marathons I have completed in my life but I learned a lot and finished under 3 hours. I know if I look back on this day that I will not regret running that half marathon. I may regret during the race but never after. For those of you that are reading this, which I'm not sure why you are because I'm a terrible writer, live in the now and don't worry about what if because if you continue to ask what if then you may end up not doing much with your life and not be able to experience life. With that said I will end this part of my post. The next part below will take about helpful tips in saving if you want to participate in races.
Finish Line - Arbuckle to Ardmore Half Marathon
Photo credit - Carly Nguyen
As you know running can be expensive, well maybe not running but all the things to prepare you for running and running events. First off lets talk about travel. Under this umbrella term of travel you can include gas, hotel, food, drinks, etc. Travel can get very expensive quickly so it is important to be very strategic in your planning. If I am traveling out of state or maybe a longer distance I will try and pair up different events so that I can get my monies out of it. Such as scheduling to go see a concert and running a race event (which I did this weekend), site seeing and race event, visiting family and a race event. This way you aren't spending a ton of money just on race. If you can find a pal to run with then you can split the cost. I can go on about how to save but one thing I want to hit is registration fees. Registration fees can pile up quickly, for example I have been documenting all of my races for this year and the price I am paying. At this moment of time I have spent about $500 on race registration alone. Yes it is expensive, but this does include 8 half marathons, 2 15K, 1 10K, and several 5Ks. People ask me why I'm spending so much to run. My answer is because I like the bling and it is an accomplishment for me to complete these races. Back in high school I was very overweight and could barely run a mile without stopping. Now I can run several miles and even complete half marathons. Anyways back to talking about registration, there are various ways you can save, such as signing up earlier, attending race expos to get coupon codes for races (they are almost always free, I haven't ran into one that is not free), google searching for coupons, groupon, and signing up for a running membership with a club. The cheapest way I found to paying the least for a race is signing up when at the very beginning. For example, back in November I did a 5K in Tulsa and it was a very big race. Well the next night I got an email that stated good job if you want to sign up for 2017 races you can and here are the prices. In total it was $75 for a half marathon and a 5K (before all the fees), which was a steal so I registered for the race. The registration is just opening for the first time since that deal and the price nearly doubled. Generally registration is not double the cost but you never know. Another example is I attended a race in Fort Worth TX and spun this wheel to see if I can win something free. I didn't end up getting a free shirt or free gear but I did win 10% of a race in Dallas. The code was cowtown10 and so me thinking of trying to save more I changed the code to cowtown30 because I remember it was on the wheel when I was spinning it. Guess what it worked? I was able to get 30% off of a race, which saved me almost 20 bucks. I will admit you probably shouldn't do this but you have to save money any way you can. I did try cowtown50 for the code but that didn't work. Little things like this can help you save a lot during race time. There are moments in life if you should not pay retail value. At that point you are just wasting your money. I hope this helps you in anyway possible.
If you have any questions or would like more information on something please let me know and I can comment on it or write something small in this blog. Future topics will include rewards credit cards and other ways to save money in the racing world and just in general.
Thanks
Chris
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