Picking up from yesterday –
I was picking out a couple of specific trips to talk about.
My second most expensive trip was surprisingly the Seattle Quadzilla. Between the rental car and expensive plane tickets, that trip cost about $1,000! (And I even had a free place to stay on that trip!) So, that definitely surprised me when I saw that amount.
Of course, I did do 4 races that weekend. So, if you average that out, it’s not so bad after all…
The race where I most foolishly spent money was Big Sur. It cost $521.86. But I think I picked the wrong hotel, because while I got one that was close, you couldn’t actually walk to the start because of a highway or something. And even though I had a rental car, there was not a ton of parking around there. So I sort of think I may have taken a cab… I’ll have to go back and read the post. But I definitely didn’t pick the right hotel…
But way more importantly than that, I decided to fly all the way to San Francisco. But the drive down in my rental car was so far that I realized it would’ve made more sense to just drive up, which would’ve saved me a round trip plane ticket.
Everything worked out and it was fine. But that trip could’ve absolutely been less expensive.
Another foolish race was the North Carolina half. I had a wonderful time. Because of that, perhaps it wasn’t foolish. However, there was another race in New York (which is where I was staying at the time) that very same weekend. Why did I spend over $300 for lodging and plane tickets to North Carolina when I could’ve done the one in New York?
At the time, I hand’t really mapped out all the expenses. I’d recently gotten my tax refund and felt I could splurge. I really wanted that sweet medal that lights up and has moving parts.
Also, the New York race was part of a series. And I didn’t want to do that because I felt, “What’s the point of doing one if I’m not going to finish the series? And I don’t want to travel 4 more times to make not traveling this once worth it.”
Of course, in real life, I could’ve done it and not done the series. But that wasn’t my thinking at the time…
So, that’s where some foolish mistakes were made. But, then I cut corners later. (Some cutting might’ve actually been a bit foolish too, because it leaves you tired and stuff. But obviously I made it through. So doing it without spending as much money as I did in the ones I just mentioned, I would say overall was a good choice.
And I’ll talk more about the expenses tomorrow.