Week 10: Marathons come at a cost

Reviewing training expenses 💸

I wore a smile the whole time. (📸 credit: Mishika Vora)

Look who’s running: it’s me! This week brought actual mileage and no pain. ::insert party parrot:: I feel like dropping everything and running all day — but as much as the idea tempts me, obviously I won’t. I’ve made it this long taking care of myself, and I am committed to coming back smart. Smart in this case means miles on this contraption, hours on the elliptical, and lots of extra warm-up, cool down, and strength. Spending so much time inside at the gym is wearing on me; for now, though, my efforts feel worth it and are leaving me hopeful.

I’ll share more about my first mileage in a month below, but also take an opportunity this week to review something I tend to ignore: marathon costs. Looking over what I’ve spent in this training cycle was eye-opening for me; I’ll be interested to hear what you think. Of course, I finish off with some odds n’ ends — including an other-worldly performance today in Berlin.

📋 Total miles: 14.2*

• Monday: 1.5 miles (treadmill with Lever), 50 minutes (easy, elliptical)

• Tuesday: 1.8 miles (treadmill with Lever), 1 hour (easy, elliptical)

• Wednesday: 80 minutes (40 minute warm up, 35 minutes hard, 5 minute cool down, elliptical)

• Thursday: Rest

• Friday: 3.2 miles (treadmill with Lever), 50 minutes (steady, elliptical)

• Saturday: 45 minutes (easy, elliptical)

• Sunday: 7.6 miles (treadmill with Lever), 90 minutes (steady, elliptical)

*Look at that non-zero number! These 14.2 miles were all run with bodyweight support, but they were run nonetheless. In addition, I elliptical’d for 6 hours and 15 minutes, which roughly converts to 41.7 miles. In total, my body did “55.9” miles — which would have been extra cool if I actually pulled that off with full impact.

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💳 Run my card

Marathon training is an investment: of time, of effort, and of literal dollars. I wanted to review exactly what I’ve spent this training cycle, so I pulled receipts and bank statements. 

In total, I’ve spent $3256.83 so far on the NYC Marathon. I’ll break down this spend below. Before we dive in, here are a few things to know:

• I only include costs incurred over the last 10-weeks or ones directly related to this marathon (eg any apparel bought earlier this year that I am using in training — but wasn’t specifically bought for this event — isn’t accounted for)

• I only include money I spent. The value of things like birthday presents ( h/t Fredrica for the compression boots, for example) are not here.

• I do not account for things like an increased volume of groceries or gas to races. This math is not that serious.

🎟 Race fees - $343.25
The bulk of this is the $295 registration fee for the NYC Marathon. I’ve been able to save otherwise by attending relatively inexpensive club runs for tune-up races.

🧰 Gear - $183.94
I am renting the Lever for $99/month. Otherwise, this spend includes resistance bands, a cheap heart rate monitor, an extra small yoga ball, and two marathon books. In general, I have the tools I need.

🎽 Apparel and shoes - $283.16
I am super proud of how little I’ve been lured into buying new stuff in the past two months. The vast majority of this money was spent on my new Saucony shoes ($186.36). Otherwise, I’ve bought three items: a thrifted sports bra, Nike biker shorts to prevent chafing on deep discount, and discontinued Tracksmith NYC Marathon shorts via their semi-annual sale.

🍌 Fuel and supplements - $419.61
Those $4 energy gels start to add up over time, huh? This spend is all at The Feed.

🩹 Health and wellness - $2004.47
Welp, we found where all my money goes. Each massage and chiropractic appointment is give-or-take $150, and the rest is for copays for doctor’s appointments and what my health insurance doesn’t cover. I don’t go a week without some type of tune-up. 

🗽 Marathon weekend - $22.40
Thus far all I have bought are my flights. I am using Southwest points to fly to NYC with a stop in Denver. Flying to a marathon is the one time when a layover is super welcomed for me — I appreciate the chance to get out and stretch my legs. Hotel is noticeably absent here because I have housing via a very close family friend. I am beyond grateful — it’s likely saving me $1000.

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We still have 6 weeks until the marathon, and I expect this total to rise as we get closer to race day. I know I will need to rent the Lever for another month and it might be hard to resist a new outfit; I have no plans to slow down treatments like PT and massage; has anyone ever left an expo with no official merch? 

I want to thank my financially savvy friend, Nicole, for encouraging me to do these calculations and share these numbers. I’ve heard one too many times over the years that running “just requires a pair of shoes” and that’s simply not true. It’s a privilege for me to pour so much into a hobby, and I hope others are able to go into their next races with eyes wide open.

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🚀 I’ll take the boost

This week was my first with the Lever, and it enabled me to run pain-free mileage. I’ve never run at anything less than my full body weight before. It’s a new and somewhat odd experience for me.

First, let’s talk setup. Each time I use the Lever I have to fully put it together and then break it down. I thought this would be an epic pain-in-the-ass, but it’s not. Kudos to the Lever team for making something so lightweight and easy to snap together. I start by assembling the frame and then cinching it down to the arms of the treadmill. Then I put on the Lever shorts. They’re made of a scuba-esque material and have some intense Velcro around the thighs. I wear them over my existing shorts, and getting them on is (by far) the hardest part of getting started. Once I’ve wrestled on the shorts, I then lace a cord through my right side, then across the back of the frame, through the left, and ultimately cinch the cord down in the front. The more you pull the cord, the less you “weigh”.

From there, you run — and for me it mostly feels normal. There’s a millisecond of hovering in the air longer than you’d expect, but the mechanics are more or less the same. (It’s certainly truer to form than the elliptical, which at first felt like a great substitute, but now feels closer to riding a recumbent bike than running to me.) One issue is that the cord inhibits back-to-front arm motion, but is something I am always trying to work on. It’s encouraging me to reinforce my bad habit of hooking my right arm across my body (ample evidence below). To save costs, I didn’t get the precision scale that tells you exactly how much weight you’re taking off. There’s tick marks on the cord, though, and each segment is supposed to be worth roughly 8 lbs. I’ve been pulling through 3 of these segments. I feel supported, but not overly so.

From HS to last month... You might think that I had to go out of my way to find all these pictures of my rogue right arm, but basically any running shot of me shows the same thing. One day I'll fix it.

I like the Lever overall and think it could be a powerful tool to add more mileage even when I am not injured. I am grateful that something like this exists. Rehab facilities, pro sports teams, and even colleges have Alter-Gs, but I could never come close to affording something like that. The Lever is a game-changer for the recreational athlete.  

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🧳 Odds n’ ends

Mind blown by: A new women’s World Record in the marathon. Today in Berlin, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa ran 2:11.53, surpassing the previous record by over 2 minutes. Assefa was an Olympian in 2016 in the 800m (basically a sprint) and has moved up in distance, but still continued sprinting. I am sharing this Citius Mag graphic because seeing the 5k splits is unbelievable to me — running one mid 15:00 5k makes you good enough to be a pro, let alone all these back-to-back. For those who are wondering, it’s 5:02/mile for 26.2 miles.

I hope 10 to 15K was downhill — otherwise 14:41 was nastyyyyy. 🥵 (Credit: Citius Mag)

Frustrated by: No more Spring Energy variety packs. Just when I picked the fuel I liked, poof, it’s now harder to buy. The Feed wants me to invest in a bag of 20 of the same flavor instead of a pack of 10 different ones, and I can’t do it. Yes, they’re good, but too much of a good thing… makes me gag.

Watching: The Summer I Turned Pretty, Season 2. I am watching an episode per elliptical session. It started strong, but I am losing my patience with the love triangle. I might abandon ship. If you watched and think I should soldier on, please let me know.

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I know I dismissed running influencers in an earlier post as being net-negative for me, but this week I was inspired by two. The first was someone who ran 200 kilometers across the Dolomites over 5 days. She was hurting badly after day 1, but she never quit. I suspected she felt accountable to her followers, and it hit me hard that I, too, am stronger because you all are cheering for me. The second shared that her coach was pushing her to be proud of herself now, weeks before her scheduled marathon, because waiting until the race meant that she bypassed so many opportunities to give herself love. I am proud of myself for everything I am doing on this journey, especially coming back from injury. It’s a different type of hard work than I expected to do, but it’s no less impressive. I’d love it if you could identify one thing you’re proud of yourself for — and perhaps share it in the comments or directly with me.

I’m grateful to everyone here. See you next week!