A Running Budget - What Would You Do With $60 Billion?!?

Races, sneakers, jackets, sneakers, plane tickets to races, more sneakers....

Whoever said that running was cheap, was clearly not aware of the multi-million dolalr sporting good industry who has showed us all the cool things we MUST have to run.  Can you run without a Garmin? Sure!  Would you? Heck no.  Do you need to have a Road ID? Technically not.  But I don't feel safe without mine.  Do you really need those sneakers? Some may go barefoot, but I am all over the "wear sneakers fad."  Can you do races minutes from your home?  I guess, but why would you when you can race through the Magic Kingdom, travel down the Strip at night, or take in the sights of the National Mall.

Who knew that all of this would add up? I see my father shaking his head as he reads this.  Let me tell you folks, I am the most conservative buyer out there.  In college, I really wanted a Bosu Ball. It literally took me 6 months to get up the courage to buy the damn thing because I felt soooo badly spending $100 on a piece of exercise equipment.  Of course, I still have the stupid thing.  But point is, I don't make purchases lightly and used to never buy anything for myself.  Aaron never had any trouble buying me things or finding birthday presents, because I never bought a thing.  Well, that was all true until.....you know where this is going...I fell over the top, in love with running.

Now, I have been running for a while.  Not as long as some, but a good 4 years.  In those four years, I have been pretty well controlled (I think).  Yes, I did purchase a Garmin and I did travel to a race or two, but for the most part, I did not do too many races and I just kept rewashing all of my running gear and being satisfied with what I had.  I guess when your heart is not truly into it and you are just running because you "have" to, you don't feel the need or desire to spend your entire pay check on running. 

Rocking a regular gym shirt and shorts and armband with regular iPod during a 10 miler!

This was totally my race outfit for EVERY race and run I did...

But then in April running and I fought. I decided I did not want to run.  That running was no longer fun.  I needed to enjoy life more.  Then, something else happened.  I said I would only run for fun.  I met people and pursued the social aspects of running and started this blog. And the rest was pretty much history, in short, I fell over the top in LOVE with running. 

When you fall in love with something, I guess, you just can't get enough of it.  Maybe that is why everyone at my local running store knows my name and pulls me in the backroom to show off the latest winter gear/hot items for the holidays.  Maybe that is why when my grandmother came to visit I did not want to go to the mall and shop at Ann Talyor like usual, but dragged her to the running store for new gear.  Maybe that is why for the second month in a row the only thing on my credit card statement is race entries.  AND maybe that is why when someone literally asked me yesterday what I would do with $60 billion the only word that popped into my head was RACE.

Now, I may or may not be on the ultimate runners high from this little event on Sunday, but the fact remains that my ATM and Credit Cards scream RUNNING!  So much so that we have to put me on a little bit of a budget. Folks, I may be a bit out of control in my race spending category on Mint.com (if there is such a category?!?).  With massive reluctance, when Aaron pointed this out to me, I had to agree.  BUT, I told him we could not start this budget until November, after all I had an expo to attend in October and that is a whole other ball game (besides you can bargain at those so it really does not count, right?!)

So where does this leave us, well...today I kind of decided all the additional necessary races that I need to attend in January, February, and March.  But I did tell Aaron, the budget was fine, except that if he did not want me to have reflective gear for running at night, I understood (Jewish guilt, works everytime).  Seriously though, in reality, I am going to try  to reign in it....

Except for the fact that running partner and I are going into Boston tonight and we may just happen to sorta walk by North Face and then what really is the harm at that point in poking our heads in and sitting down and seeing what shoes they have to offer (wait who said that, not me Aaron, it was crazy race high Stephanie, I can not be held responsible for her crazy antics, thank you very much!)

Have you tried North Face for running? It is the best!!

Do you have a running budget? Do you ever experience this? What would you do with $60 billion?  Good luck to all the NYCM! I know you are going to rock it!