I’ve always been a “low maintenance” girl. I generally get bike parts and training aids as for gifts from boyfriend as opposed to jewely “a cycleops fluid II, you do love me!”. Sure I like all the pretty, “finer” things, but I live within my means. At least I did until taking up this sport. After I escape from Alcatraz my next escape is going to have to be from debtor’s prison. I just added up what it is costing me to travel to SF, ship my bike, let’s not forget the $300 race entry. Is Robin Leach going to be the announcer at the Marina Green? Thank god my boyfriend’s going or I’d be dumpster diving for my pre-race meal! I make a decent living, but I’m gonna have to find a better job to feed this triathlon beast. Ok, enough whining, back to work to earn that check…kj
I completely agree with you - if I had know 20months ago when I decided to start that it’d cost me $10K (CAD) in less than 2 years, I’d have thought about it twice.
But between buying a nice bike with race wheels, paying for entry fees (including an IM at USD1,000 because I didn’t want to drive a thousand miles to sign up a year ahead), apparel and other gear, etc, I’m in for those 10K now…no wonder most of the people you meet in the sport are professionals, doctors, etc…this is one expensive hobby!
But I found a way to justify it by training lots…training 15h a week for 2 years, make those $10K only $6/hr…cheaper than a movie, isn’t that nice? 
Maybe you need to find a wealthier boyfriend.
It’s like golf, tennis, scuba diving or any other hobby. It’s as expensive as you want to make it.
It can be expensive but not as much as some people make it. I’ve tended to purchase many things secondhand and use CH Aero covers instead of a Zipp disc for example. I’ve still spent a fair bit of money.
Of course having a daughter in college and a son soon to be there also kind of forces me into this situation.
I’m not that kind of girl- I pull my own weight. My boyfriend (an attorney) is quite generous, we stay in nice hotels and eat in good restaurants, but I prefer to support my habit (I do have a pretty big “tab” with him on $$ he’s fronted on occassion for a new bike, gym membership, etc, but I fully intend to repay that). I don’t like the idea of being “kept”. I offered to let him “sponsor” me, I 've never seen him laugh so hard! BTW, he’s also my boss…kj
A significant part of my expense problem is that I live in Hawaii. Travel/shipping kills me. Not a lot of races I can drive to…kj
I just had a discussion with my boyfriend about triathlon expenses a few days ago and he said “But I NEEDED two sets of wheels. Besides, we’re sharing them, you can use them too.” REALLY!?! I think my bike has wheels on it already. Jeez. OK, so I have a jersey in almost every color so I better shut up now.
I should mention that his wheels were not expensive and I get my jerseys on ebay but they still cost $$ even if it’s not the most expensive stuff.
Yeah, and those $9/pair socks start to add up too. But they’re so stinkin’ cute…kj
I feel your pain, I’m in Honolulu (originally from Hilo) and just did two races in CA (Wildflower and Xterra Temecula) in two weeks. We got good airfare and camped at both so it was basically 2 for 1, but still. I’ll be over there in Kona for the Honu half in 2 weeks from now.
One thing I did to save me some money is build a custom bike box, well frame box and a seperate wheel box. Saved me $180 this last trip on bike shipping.
I’m lucky enough to have some equipment sponsors which actually ends up pressuring me to train more so I can make sure that I can keep those sponsors… Just got a new P3sl, so that’s like 2-3 months salary for my student self.
For interisland flights I generally just bubble wrap my dr and roll my bike onto Aloha. They’ve always been really good to it (so far), but for longer trips I pack it.
Good luck at Honu, I’ll be there at T2 to help you. Rode the course on Sunday - wind from HELL. Someone told me it was gusting up to 90 mph. I can’t verify any specific wind speeds, but I didn’t spend much time in aero as I was affraid of blowing over.
90 mph! Damn, I’ve ridden to Hawi a few times and always been pretty lucky. I guess I’m glad I’ll be skipping the disk wheel for once.
I used to just roll on my bike until the time I say my softride on the baggage cart, it was rolling along in it’s own little spot at the back of the cart when the cart hit a bump and ALL the bags fell on my bike. Or the time I was looking out of the plane window and the baggage guy drove by with my bike on the hood of his truck, left hand out the window holding on to it. Then he stopped and it fell off the front of the hood… I pack mine now:)
Will see you in two weeks. I’ll be the guy with the P3sl, IT&B white and silver stickers on my front zipp 404 and ugly Garneau aero helmet.
Take all those expenses and multiply X2. My daughter races as well. My wallet is always empty.
A significant part of my expense problem is that I live in Hawaii. Travel/shipping kills me. Not a lot of races I can drive to…kj
Surprisingly, I suddenly don’t feel as bad for you as I did from your original post - and definitely won’t feel that bad tomorrow when I ride and it’s 40 degF in the morning…
Sorry this is so OT, but we’re having a long weekend in Canada and tomorrow’s forecast in Calgary is rain and cold, so I’m now in a bad mood!
Bring your disk just in case, you never know how its going to be. Last Sunday it would have been a frisbee, but in a 2 weeks it could be a calm day. Are you doing Chris’ sprint at North Shore on the 28th?
I’d love to bring the disk as I pretty much never race without it. I’ve raced Lavaman and Keauhou with the disk no problem but they are banning them at Honu. It makes sense I guess, but I’d love to give it a try:)
I’m doing the Kaneohe Bay sprint Tri tomorrow as a couple of guys are away for the weekend and it might be my chance to get my once a year win for the resume. It’s alway a fun race as well, cheap, well put on, fun course (sorry Chris but North shore is rather boring) and they have nice awards.
I may do North Shore as Chris supports me and I’d like to support him back, but with Honu that would be 6 races in 8 weeks and four races back to back, that might be pushing it a bit. Are you doing Chris’s race?
Yeah, I like to do Chris’ races. If for no other reason than that he and Bev are so great. They always let us crash at their house so we don’t have to get up way early and drive in from Waikiki. The funny thing is we’re doing this race primarily because our Aloha coupons expire June 15 and we need to use them up. Then back home for my boyfriend to do Honu and off to SF for me to do Alcatraz the following weekend. Its going to be a busy couple of weeks. After Sunday’s ride I’m glad I’m doing Alcatraz rather than Honu!
Funny, a big group from over here was in Kona last week (BOCA) and trained their asses off. Seriously, looking at thier training schedules they should all be kicking my ass across the lava fields. Our local uber athlete Tim who just placed 11th at Wildflower long course said he had the best training weekend of his life and literally felt invincible. But it must have been some crazy weather because he’s been wrecked the entire week recovering from that weekend;) He’ll be there to defend his Honu title though, and if he’s in the form he was at Wildflower, and he should be faster, I’m betting on him all the way.
Yeah, Chris and Bev are great. I just have to work on getting him to mark his courses a little better:) Granted North Shore you can’t get lost on but at Haleiwa last year I got lost pretty good on the run course (and I’ve done the damn thing three or four times) and at one point ended up waiting around as I was at a turnaround dead end but there was no turnaround sign or volunteer. Finally someone else ran up and I realized where to go. Fun races though, I think Chris gets a kick out of his fend for yourself races:) I’ll probably be out at North Shore, maybe I’ll race it…
Tai, I don’t suppose you could post pics of your custom bike box? I was thinking of going that route as i am pretty sure I can get it under the airline restriction, I have a very small framed bike due to a short torso. If I can’t build a box under the total dimension restriction it can’t be done.
Hey Jim, I will definetely post pictures and hopefully soon. Both are made of chloroplast (plastic carboard) the frame box 4 mil and the wheel box 8 mil. Built the frame box first and learned a lot, the wheel box came out much lighter, nicer, stronger and just plain better. You have to have a pretty small frame though. My mtn bike fits by folding down the rear swing arm. Neither boxes made it under airline spec though… Both are 2-3 inches to large. I’m building another box for my P3sl frame though, 53cm and it looks like it’ll just make it. I could have made the wheel box fit if I just made it for road wheels but I wanted to be able to fit my mtb wheels with thier disc brake rotors so I fudged it. Noone checked at the airline. I’ve only traveled once with them and the first time the they went right through, 2nd time I used a sky cap and had no problems.
“Surprisingly, I suddenly don’t feel as bad for you as I did from your original post - and definitely won’t feel that bad tomorrow when I ride and it’s 40 degF in the morning…”
No doubt, Hawaii is a beautiful place to live, but sometimes it just feels like a rock in the middle of the ocean…kj
PS: get a trainer and and ride indoors to avoid those 40 deg rides!