2006 Triathlon Spending

I used to work for the company that produces Quicken, the leading personal financial software,  so you think I would have some grasp of my personal financial situation.  But in fact I hardly keep track of where my money goes.   All I know is that 2006 has been really bad for my net worth, due in large part to all the triathlon related spending. 

So I was intrigued by a lengthy thread in the Slowtwitch Forum where numerous triathletes reported spending over $10,000 per year on triathlon related spending.  (Of course I have read that the average triathlete makes more than US$100,000 year so they can afford to spend far more than I can)

Some of my fellow triathletes seem to spend significantly more money on the sport than I can afford to and I decided to roughly calculate and categorize my 2006 triathlon spending using the reported categories  from Slowtwitch:

1. Coaching -  Jay $0.  Average for people with coach - $500
What???  I am supposed to pay for a coach?  Yeah, well it would be very nice to have the attention, but for any questions I am content to ask my expert teammates like Keren or Steve and Michael, or rely on the Gale Berhnardt and Joe Frey websites


2. Personal trainers / massage therapy - Jay $ 0    Average - $200
Ha-ha-ha-ha.   Another absurd indulgence.   Americans are becoming too rich and stratified.  People really need not be spending so much for unnecessary luxuries like some Pharaoh and his harem


3. Bike and Swim Equipment - Jay $400     Average $3,500
In 2006 I acquired bike cleats and pedals $190, bento box bike pack $30, swim goggles $25,  bike tubes $10, wheel repair $100, Other $35  
I have almost no possessions anyway (of any sort).   I live in a serviced apartment and all my worldly goods can fit in a small car (not that I even own a car).  I certainly don't spend much on bike equipment.  In fact, I don't know where some of the bike stuff I do own is - presumably some cardboard box somewhere.


4. Running Shoes -  Jay $125     Average $350
In 2006 and late 2005 I acquired two free pair of Asics, a pair of Nikes at employee prices and a pair of full-priced Sauconies, so despite the enormous mountain of running shoes in my closet, my running shoe spending has been low.


5. Apparel -  Jay $75     Average $400
I am supposed to BUY triathlon apparel??   I expect to just receive it at races, like the nice Saucony long-sleeve top we received at the Inagi Ekiden, the gloves from Jim Weissman, the sunglasses from Fabrizio, the zillion t-shirts I have accumulated over the years.  Socks and shorts are customary Christmas gifts.   I wear the same few clothes over and over and over anyway - whatever is on the top of my plastic bin of athletic wear.  The only things I have bought recently are bike booties and shorts.


6. Bike (amortized) -  Jay $250     Average $1500

I buy a relatively inexpensive $1,000 bike and keep it 4 years.   Other triathletes seem to be buying $3,000 - 5,000 bikes every other year.


7. Gel, Power Bars -  Jay $300     Average $300
I have heard this is an expensive source of nutrition.  But actually any source of nutrition in Japan is expensive, so I don't believe this is too much of indulgence.  Would spend almost as much on apples or carrots in Japan.   Thanks goodness my friend Martin Murphy ordered a huge shipment of vanilla creme Gel from the US.


8. Health Club / Masters Swim Fee -  Jay $480    Average $400
OK, I know for people in Tokyo, membership in the notoriously upscale Roppongi Hills Spa must sound wildly hedonistic.  But this most of the membership fee is actually built into my basic monthly consulting retainer and so the incremental costs are cheaper than travelling to a public swimming pool across town.


9. Triathlon /running event entry fees: Jay $1,175    Average $1,000
Wow, these entry fees are expensive (and it is not like the proceeds in the case of triathlons go to charity...)  This figure includes triathlons like NZ, Goto, Sado, and running events like Angkor Wat, Edogwara, and a few other small running events.  Sado was the most egregious - US$250 for a half-ironman.  Totally worth every yen though. 


10. Triathlon-related Travel:  Jay - $4,000     Average  $2,000
Hmmmm.  Well I really like to travel, and I used frequent flier miles to get to Nagasaki and stayed in budget accommodations.  Still Tokyo is an expensive place to travel from.  The long weekend train/boat trip to nearby Sado Island ($750) cost almost as much as the week in Cambodia ($900).  The US triathletes report to travelling to events and staying in their huge recreational vehicles, so their incremental trip costs are low, but their fixed overhead is huge.


11. Triathlon-related Coffee Consumption  Jay - $100  Average - $0
(another separate Quicken category)
 

Angkor Wat Half-Marathon

After having such a grand time travelling to the Fukuoka Half-Marathon in Kyushu last autumn, we searched for other interesting destinations where a half-marathon could be the impetus for group trip to some fascinating destination. A marathon is too exhausting (before and after the run), a 10k is too short for me to justify epic travel, and triathlons require so much logistics and eliminate 90% of my teammates. I found several websites such as RW's race index which suggested half-marathons in Lisbon, Sweden, Italy and Taiwan (all of which I hope to do someday). But the most intriguing event was the Angkor Wat Half-Marathon, a destination I had long hoped to visit, and one that is near the same time zone and award travel routes from Tokyo.

Alas the Angkor Wat Half-Marathon is held in mid-December, and with Christmas, Japanese bonenkai events, my REIT IPO work, Phuket Triathlon, my US trip, and other end of year activities I did not think myself or any other teammates would actually be able to schedule such an international journey. However I spoke to Arnaud from the Singapore MR25 team for whom the Angkor Wat Half-Marathon is a required annual pilgrimage, and Arnaud became a passionate evangelist for the event among the Nambanners, encouraging a dozen members of the team to travel to Cambodia. As is my custom, I waited until the last second to commit, but managed to book a last-minute convoluted travel itinerary.

So on December 15th I delightedly greet 16 other Namban and MR25 runners as we converged at Casa Angkor Hotel from different flights from Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. Casa Angkor Hotel is charming and comfortable enough, especially at only $45 per night. For the next for days we feast on superb Khmer curries and fish amok at atmospheric restaurants and hang out at the cafes of pubstreet and sleek FCC. One of the pleasures I find in Southeast Asia is travel by the open tuks-tuks. Siem Reap's streets are still mostly streaming along with bicycles and pedestrians and dogs rather than completely clogged with cars and trucks. Granted the streets are often strewn with garbage, but the colonial architecture, parks, tree-lined and upscale new hotels are impressive. For a country with average per capita income of $200/month and the huge wealth disparity between the visitors and locals, the people of Siem Reap strike me as friendly and unaggressive relative to other developing countries I have recently visited.

Cambodia seems to be priced like a 100-yen shop (one-dollar store) - everything for foreigners costs $1 - tuk-tuk rides of widely varying distance, french bakery items, coffee, cards, papers, books, beer, trinkets, internet usage, etc. I neglect to learn the rule that foreigners are supposed to use US dollars and I convert some Japanese yen at the airport into 200,000 Cambodian rial, and immediately found how wildly inconvenient it is to use the local currency. Fortunately I find a New Zealand Bank ATM machine along a dusty street which rather remarkably spit out a stack of US $20 bills.

THE RUN

I had yet to visit the Angkor Wat site prior to arriving for the race in the pre-dawn darkness on Sunday morning. So it was a transcendent experience watching the sun rise over the temple complex as we warmed up. So transcendent that I only realized I left my chip in the van as officials announced that there were 3 minutes to the starting gun. So after a frantic dash to get the chip, I had a bit of adrenaline going at the start and went out in 3:45, a pace which proved too ambitious. In fact I was already fading by the U-turn at 4-kilometers, dropping to 4-minute pace. I probably would have felt OK about this but for the fact the Singapore mates running the opposite direction (Arnaud, Mika, Chuck..) all yelled out comments like "C'mon Jay get up there" "What is the matter with you Jay" "Lets get going Jay - you are supposed to be with the leaders". Wow, I thought America was a competitive place. Apparently Singapore is a much more demanding environment than the relaxed and accepting Namban Rengo culture.

From 7k to the finish I found myself beside a Cambodian teenager running the most erratic pace. We talked and encouraged each other though my command of Khmer language is limited. I managed to look around and admire the course even though I was working pretty hard to maintain 4-minute pace.

PHNOM PENH

I felt compelled to see more of Cambodia than just the heavily-visited town of Siem Reap. so after 4 days in Siem Reap I return home via a boat trip to the capital, Phnom Penh. I found the journey to Phnom Penh the most vivid part of the trip though it is not really designed for lazy travellers like me accustomed to business travel and the polite efficiency of Japan (most grown-up travelers simply fly in and out of Siem Reap and the true backpackers travel by the $4 bus). The biggest challenge is getting off the tuk-tuk and getting on the boat in Siem Reap. I was completely set upon by villagers hawking food for the boat trip, trying to carry my bag for a tip, hook me up with a driver in Phom Penh, etc (this can be a bit threatening when you are by yourself and struggling in the mud with one of those rolling flight attendant bags). I imagine the bus to Bangkok would have been really exhausting. Since the clientele is poorer, maybe there are less vultures? or maybe I would stand out as the best target?

Anyway after that the boat is a relatively comfortable, upscale backpacker experience The boat crosses the remarkably vast Tongle Lake and its colorful floating villages, and then down the Tongle RIver where you get a glimpse of the lifestyle of rural Cambodia. I found it pleasant to alternate between the inside seats and sitting on the deck in the sunshine. At one point the boat engine stopped and we drifted into a mud flats where we surrounded by curious peasant farmers. Five minutes pass, ten minutes pass, and I was growing concerned, but then somehow the crew got us going again. I was braced for Phnom Penh to be such a squalid, threatening, hell-hole, that I was pleasantly surprised when the area fronting the Mekong River turned out to be relatively clean and functioning (even upscale in places). In fact it was comfortable enough to sit outside at the numerous charming sidewalk cafes that line the riverfront -- the merchants seem to pay to keep the wall of beggars a certain distance away -- but once I stood up and start walking down the sidewalk I got besieged again. I did not get the impression there is much to see though beyond the riverfront area and the Killing Field Museum - but then I was not terribly adventurous. Unlike Bangkok there is much less motorized traffic and the air (at least this week) was crystal clear.

After the fun and camaraderie of Angkor Wat, talk turns to the next run-as-an-excuse-to-travel and several people start preparing for (I am not kidding) the Gobi Desert Half-Marathon

Honolulu

I stopover in Hawaii where I lived for 3 years back in the mid 1990s.  People are aghast that I did not become a triathlete during my years in Hawaii.  Instead I just worked a lot and occasionally jogged and grew terribly out-of-shape.

I try to make up for this during my few days in Hawaii by extensively swimming and running along Kailua Beach on the Windward side of Oahu.  Kailua Beach is a 4.5 kilometer stretch of white sand and turquoise water ideal for open water swims and beach runs. 

My schedule allows me to watch much of the Honolulu Marathon before hurrying off to the airport.  17,000 of the 29,000 field is composed of Japanese who are attracted by the idea of a Hawaii vacation, the scenic course, and the lack of opportunities in Japan to run marathons without harsh finishing time restrictions. Apparently many, many more runners would come but for the lack of seat capacity on the flights between Japan and Honolulu.  The 17,000 runners from Japan create a reported $100 million economic benefit to Oahu, so the limited casual marathon opportunities in Japan are a windfall for Hawaii.

I cheer on a seemingly endless stream of remarkably festive, smiling runners (at least during the first half of the race).   I jump in with Taro Agui who is pacing his Harrier team to a 6-hour finish.  This time may not sound impressive to some of the more elitist readers of this blog, but it is faster than more than half the finishers.    I see my archrival from Ome, Mike Taratko who finishes 541st in 3:29:55.

Perhaps what amazes me most is that the runners from Japan are doing the race on almost zero sleep.  The marathon starts at 5am in Honolulu which is midnight in Japan.  Talk about jet lag.  I have been pondering various triathlons in the US, but  early to mid-morning is the worst time for me to overcome the 5-11 hour time zone difference.  Several of my Tokyo teammates have complained of feeling tired at the start of North American marathons (Anthony in Portland, Carol in NYC), and I am convinced jet lag is a big factor.   Moreover, most of the Japan participants at Honolulu arrive on package tour red-eye flights on Friday morning meaning they are lucky to get one real night of sleep in the 72 hours leading up to the race.  My friend Akiba-san, in the fashion of the typical Japanese salaryman, had been working 20-hour days in the week leading up to the trip, so he was in a sleep deficit even before getting on the flight to Honolulu.   Amazingly he was able to finish in 5 hours. 

The other Honolulu Marathon challenge is that after the sun begins to rise at 6:30am it becomes hotter and hotter, and the participants who take 9 hours to finish find themselves being cooked in midday heat.   But Sunday is such a cool morning that I am inclined to jump in the race myself. 

Would I do this event next year?  The Naha Marathon in Okinawa which is a week earlier provides a tropical vacation and avoids the jetlag and much of the heat (teammate Hideo reports average race temperatures in Naha of only 20 degrees).   Moreover Okinawa is more affordable - the price of everything in Hawaii has risen far beyond my meager budget with many accommodations costing 4 times the local rates I payed a decade ago.