Marathon Maniacs

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Logistics Question... (Read 371 times)

evanflein


    I've got a question for some of you maniacs who run so many marathons... How do you afford the travel? I find my marathon prowess is limited not by what my legs/body can handle... how the heck do you get to all those races? Of course, living in Alaska I have very few local options so I have to travel to just about anything. But Srlopez spends a lot of time in Hawaii, and the travel/time is not inconsiderable from there! I'm signed up for NYC, even have a hotel booked, but I'm finding I can't find the $$ in the budget for the airfare and the mileage award options don't look very good (have me staying there longer in expensive hotels). Any tips? Secrets? (this is on top of the question about affording entry fees, which I've learned a lot of maniacs run smaller, local races that don't have the exorbitant entry fees of Chicago, NYC, etc.)
    Ric H


      Thats a great question with tons I'm sure of different answers, I'll try a few. My friend has earned several trips by collecting money for charities like Team in Training that pay airfair, hotels, all expenses. And same guy took a voluntary bump to get a free ticket anywhere in the country. I flew from Seattle to my brothers in New Orleans, stayed at there place, ate there, and they drove us to First Light Marathon in Mobile, my avatar is a picture of the two of us there. So basically mooching is another way. And of course running a double, two marathons on the same weekend gives you two in the same trip. I'm doing Hartford a saturday in Oct then Steamtown in Pa on sunday. Also giving me two states in the one trip, check the 50 states club website calendar at the top of the home page, great list of doubles there. I en vie the new england types that get a third of the states within an easy train ride. I'll be interested in others responses.


      2011 Redding (CA)

        At last count, Oregon had 10 full- and 8 ultra-marathons ... all within driving distance of my home. That means no flights and often no motels. Sharing the cost of rooms and carpools are another obvious option. Sorry ... all of this is easier for someone living in the Pacific Northwest ... but more difficult in Alaska.

        2011 Redding Marathon (CA),  2011 Yakima Marathon (WA),  2011 Eugene Marathon (OR),  2011 Newport Marathon (OR)

        2011 Pacific Crest Marathon (OR),  2011 Smith Rock Summer Classic Half (OR),  2011 Haulin' Aspen Trail Half (OR)

        2011 Running is for the Birds 10Km (OR),  2011 Sunriver Marathon (OR)

        xor


          Ah, a topic I know well. In my case, I spent a few years burning off frequent flyer miles, which helped a lot. If you look at my race page, you will notice a lot more Pacific Northwest races these days. Why? Out of miles :-D. One way to get lots of races is "move to a place where there are lots of races". I know, this is a little like Steve Martin's secret for how to get a million dollars and never pay taxes ("First, get a million dollars...") But this really IS how lots of people have done it. Several areas of the country are just blessed with lots of races. I know some 50 staters, especially the retired types, who have RVs and drive them everywhere. I kinda wonder how the big spike in gas prices changes that... Other stuff: 1. Stick with one airline, if possible, and become an elite flyer with that airline. You usually have to keep this going annually. Why? Lots of magic things happen when you become elite, including "you get to board first", but for the purposes of this discussion: you suddenly earn FF miles hella faster. Like 1.5 or 2x faster. 1a. Do not sit on FF miles. USE THEM RIGHT AWAY. Airlines dork with their programs all the time, and invariably the miles get devalued. They do you no good to stay in your account; they don't earn interest. Use them up. 1b. Learn to sleep on planes. Overnight flights can be cheaper. But not always. 1c. There's lots of discussion all the time about whether it ends up cheaper to always go with the dirt cheap flights, no matter the airline involved... or to pay a little more to build up the miles on one. The truth for me is something in the middle. Stick with one until you hit elite, then shop by price. These days, though, it's more problematic. You want to plan several months out... but you wonder if your airline will still be in business. As you probably know, if you book a flight and your airline goes bust, you lose your money. Right now, Frontier has cheaper flights, sometimes by 50%, to places I want to hit in the fall. But I dunno if they'll still be around, so I'm kinda stuck. There's no good answer for this, sorry. 1d. If you can handle the goofiness of Southwest and they go where you want, their FF program is usually rated by flyers as the best one. BUT, figure out where the airline hubs are in relation to where you live and where you want to go. I stick with American because my parents live near DFW... an AA hub... and I run lots of Texas races. Go to Ohio or the Southeast? Delta is probably your "friend" because their hubs include Cincy and ATL. I put "friend" in quotes because ATL sucks and you may curse it. So then you start learning about the alternatives. 1e. Airline ticket pricing is absolutely insane. It is really hard to figure out. 2. Make sure you join the hotel version of FF programs. You can get free hotel nights this way, and for some chains, they are pretty easy to use. 2a. If you like to camp, find races near campgrounds. This ain't for me, but some people really dig it. 3. Travel with buddies. 4 people in a car might be cheaper than airfare. 4. Get a job with an airline :-/. Or a job where your company flies you places on their dime. All that said, there isn't a magic free/cheap way to do this. Unless you or your spouse perhaps works for an airline. Sorry, there just isn't. There is a long list of other discussion points that people can bring up and agree/disagree on, but just know that there isn't a cheap way to fly everywhere unless someone else is footing the bill.

           

          Trent


          Good Bad & The Monkey

            You can do what I did: start your own marathon Wink
            xor


              Thats a great question with tons I'm sure of different answers, I'll try a few. My friend has earned several trips by collecting money for charities like Team in Training that pay airfair, hotels, all expenses. And same guy took a voluntary bump to get a free ticket anywhere in the country..
              Oh yes, getting those vouchers for getting bumped is a very handy way to build up "free" travel for later races. The key tip is the same as for FF miles: use them asap. Vouchers generally expire after a year, and the process for utilizing them sometimes (though not always) is designed to be a pain. Airlines know that a % of them will go unused. Don't let yours be in that %. As for TNT, that's a special topic to me. You do realize that TNT isn't magically paying for this travel, right? The airfare, hotel, special parties, etc... all that stuff comes straight out of donor money. It isn't donated by airlines and hotels (usually). There are very positive ways to spin this and it's part of the process (it's why only 74-76% of the money collected by that charity actually goes to the cause), but it is important to think through this as a person raising funds... to be ready for the donor who asks. I've had several TNT folks tell me that the travel is paid by the airlines. They weren't intending to lie to me, I'm sure of it, they just didn't know. NOW: in the past couple years, more and more of these charities are allowing the fund raisers to pay for their OWN travel. This is helpful, though specific to the question in this thread ("how do I travel for cheaper"), it doesn't apply.

               


              2011 Redding (CA)

                Trent raised an excellent point ("You can do what I did: start your own marathon"). Marathon Maniacs will recognize the marathon based on just a few simple conditions. The most difficult might be 5 people starting and 3 people finishing the race. But, with a few friends in Alaska, you might be able to trade off in different locations. The Newport Marathon (Oregon) benefits the high school track program(s) and uses high school kids to help. And it has been a very large success in a relatively short period of time. A number of marathons in Washington State are directed by Maniacs, and well attended.

                2011 Redding Marathon (CA),  2011 Yakima Marathon (WA),  2011 Eugene Marathon (OR),  2011 Newport Marathon (OR)

                2011 Pacific Crest Marathon (OR),  2011 Smith Rock Summer Classic Half (OR),  2011 Haulin' Aspen Trail Half (OR)

                2011 Running is for the Birds 10Km (OR),  2011 Sunriver Marathon (OR)

                evanflein


                  Thanks Istvan and Stevie Ray... That's a lot of good info. And no, I've been here in Alaska long enough to know there's no magic secret or cheap trick. "Get a million dollars," ok, gonna work on that one. Wink I am MVP with Alaska Airlines, will be MVP Gold this fall so that does help. I am using a work conference trip to get to a marathon in October (Royal Victoria Oct. 12), so I just have to pay the short hop from Seattle to Victoria and back. But it seems like my work travels never (or hardly ever) coincide with marathons. And... 2009 will be hard because our travel budget has been trimmed so much. Starting my own marathon... hmmmm, that's tempting. Doesn't do much to get me another state, though. All good stuff. (and I am in some of the hotel awards programs, but it seems easier to accrue miles for free flights than enough points for free stays!) Thanks for the input and I'll be hoping for more gems to come.


                  2011 Redding (CA)

                    Evanflein ... there's a cool web site ( http://www.runningintheusa.com ) that shows "races" by state (for example). Click on the "Races" button (top left), then select AK (for example) on the map under "By State", then "All" and "AK Marathons". They show 6 full-marathons and 2 ultra-marathons. This might help with your planning, and be yet another source of race information (like MarathonGuide and Marathon Maniacs). Maybe a "Ghost" marathon before or after one of these would help with a double (like the Ghost of Seattle Marathon on Nov 29 and the Seattle Marathon on Nov 30). Just a thought ...

                    2011 Redding Marathon (CA),  2011 Yakima Marathon (WA),  2011 Eugene Marathon (OR),  2011 Newport Marathon (OR)

                    2011 Pacific Crest Marathon (OR),  2011 Smith Rock Summer Classic Half (OR),  2011 Haulin' Aspen Trail Half (OR)

                    2011 Running is for the Birds 10Km (OR),  2011 Sunriver Marathon (OR)