The Cost to Compete

Tomorrow I’m off to the Squaw Valley Writer’s Conference for a week so I decided to register for the Tuscaloosa race now. I hope to run while at Squaw, but I won’t be able to bike or swim (unless I take the ski-lift up to the Olympic pool at the top of the mountain.) I was going wait until next week to sign in case my hamstrings don’t get better.

But if I wait, everything will cost more and the rooms will be gone, so I went ahead with the registration.

Multi-sport is not cheap. Here’s what it is going to cost to compete:

Registration: $139.00 - this is “late” registration plus a $9 service fee; my qualifying race was in July and the late fee is for everyone who registers after June 30 – which seems unfair to those of us who qualify in the later races. The nine dollar processing fee seems pretty steep, too.

Bike Service & Transportaion: $270.00 - one of the local bike shops in Tuscaloosa provides a service whereby we can ship the bike to them and they will assemble and then later after the race they will disassemble and take care of the return shipment. They charge $150 for that service and I’ll have to play UPS about $120 roundtrip for the freight. If I bring the bike along with me on the plane – United will charge me $195 one way and I’ll have to do all the assembly work. So this is a good deal, because if I assembled the bike, there is no telling what I will end up with.

Airfare: $300.00 – roundtrip from O’Hare on one of United’s commuter jets. At least it is non-stop.

Car rental: $174.00 – for three days in a compact car;

Hotel: $220.00 – the host hotel didn’t have any rooms on Friday; the Hampton required a three night stay; the Marriott Courtyard was sold-out. The Fairfield Inn had one room left – their Executive suite - $105 / night, but they didn’t require three nights – so I took it.

Grand Total: $1,103.00

These kinds of sports expenditures require some additional perspective. I figure a round of golf with a cart and few drinks afterward costs about $150 – so this is really the equivalent of seven rounds of golf.

Therefore, to pay for this outing I have foregone any golf for the last two months.

Workout: Swim – 1600 yards – 43:10; water was calm;

Weight: 190; daughter brought home really tasty chocolate cookies; crème-filled; hard to resist;