Destination Race Dreaming

Today I'm linking up with Erica at MCM Mama Runs, Marcia at Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and Patty at My no-guilt life for Tuesdays on the Run.

The topic for today is "budgeting for destination races, how much do they really cost?"

Race-cation... what a fun concept! There are so many races in so many destinations that are attractive to go visit, why not combine the two? I haven't really traveled to a destination race... unless you count traveling to Galveston (80 miles away). I have an upcoming destination race in the Kansas City area, I scheduled it in to coincide with a planned visit to see my family. It really feels more like budgeting for a trip back home, there were no real extra costs except for a race entry for me and my 2 nieces.

So... what would they cost, or how would you budget? Last week an opportunity arose at work for a paid entry into the Chicago Marathon.  As I looked at the calendar and calculated if I had enough time to properly train, I thought about what would go into making that happen.

• Airfare - how much is roundtrip from Houston to Chicago... better put that into the Hopper app to see what they suggest.


• Place to stay - hotel? air bnb? friends or family? ... oh, the hubs has a friend up in Chicago we need to visit... got to start multiplying everything by 2

Well, that is as far as I got.  While Chicago seems completely do-able, I was so looking forward to training for my first marathon in the fall/winter instead of the Houston summer. I will need to leave the destination race planning for another time.