2014 Race Schedule

Well I have given it a bit more thought and I think I am ready to commit, I checked with Karyn on our run this morning and she was ok with it and thought it sounded like a fun goal, so here goes, this is my 2014 race schedule:

Date	Event	Days between
01/12/14	Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor MarathonZoom!	50
04/26/14	Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes	104
05/10/14	Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon	14
05/25/14	Med-City Marathon	15
06/01/14	Minneapolis Marathon	7
06/21/14	Grandmas Marathon	20
07/12/14	Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon	21
09/06/14	Moose Mountain Marathon	56
09/20/14	Walker/North Country Races	14
10/05/14	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon	15
10/11/14	Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon	6
10/19/14	Mankato Marathon	8
10/26/14	Surf the Murph 50k	7

I like it, run every outdoor Minnesota marathon in the same year and if I add in the 50k at Surf the Murph it will also move me up a level in the Maniacs from gold to:

IRIDIUM LEVEL

4 Marathons in 23 days.

I really like it.

And I have decided to go ahead and submit my entry for the Zoom! Yah! Yah! which if I get into it, would get me every Minnesota marathon be it indoor and outdoor in the same calendar year but I will be on the wait list and probably won't get in but at least I have tried. If it doesn't work out that's ok as I am not in even marginal marathon shape and if it does, well it's 49 days away so that will force me out the door as the winter descends which is the motivation I need. If I don't get in though I will try for the 2015 event as that would get me all of the marathons in a year time period.

So to sum it up, I really like the race schedule as I needed a new challenge in my running. My thinking is running the roads for a year will get me healthy and then in 2015 I can either resume my 50 state quest or head back to doing ultras or both ;-).

Running Shoe Companies

Those that know me, know I love my running shoes and I do have a lot of pairs of shoes in my current rotation. I am running in Skechers, Altras, Sauconys, Brooks, New Balance, Merrell, Inov-8s, Vibram FiveFingers and my most recent acquisition Hoka Mafate 3's. More on all of these later. This post is about the shoe companies, no not the names above but the real owners.

Take Hokas, they were acquired by Deckers Outdoors, they also own Teva and UGG's. You can read more if you like at Runners World or Competitor.

What about my Brooks shoes? Brooks owns Brooks right, wrong, Brooks is owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Per the wikipedia post they were acquired first by Russell in 2004 and then Berkshire in 2006. Interesting, I guess Warren Buffett must be a runner at heart.

Ok what about Altras? They are a start up right and owned by the founders, right? Wrong, again per wikipedia they were acquired by Icon Health & Fitness in 2011, funny I have never heard them mention this. Oh well. Still good shoes.

And Skechers? Hey again in reading their history, they appear to be owned by their founders still. Oh by the way I do like their shoes. I found I really like the bionic trails but not for long trail runs. They don't offer me quite enough protection.for runs longer than 10 miles, it's more my issue than theirs, more about this later.

New Balance? They appear to be their own company and still make some of their shoes in the US and some in the UK, checkout Wikipedia for more info, so if buying American is your preference then they are your best choice.

Next up, Saucony? Although they were acquired by StrideRite (makers of Keds), per Wikipedia they are now owned by Wolverine World Wde. Think Wolverine boots and Hush Puppies and a few others.

Oh did I mention a few others, well guess who owns Merrell's? That's right Wolverine World Wide. Although (again per wikipedia) to be technically accurate they are a wholly owned subsidiary

Next up, Inov-8? It appears they are owned by Inov-8. They are a UK based company and I have found that they make some of the best trail shoes out there.

And Vibram FiveFingers, it appears they are still owned by Vibram and of all my shoes I have neglected these most of all.

Did I mention that Montrail is owned by Columbia SportsWear, Vasque is owned by Red Wing Shoes, Pearl Izumi is a subsidiary of Shimano (think cycling), Newton owns Newton but they did try to sell their technology to Nike, Saucony and Adidas but were turned down so they started their own company. And last but not least I think Nike owns Nike and Adidas owns Adidas and Asics owns Asics, I think that covers the brands I normally think about.

So does any of this matter, no but I found it interesting and I thought a few others might too.

2014 Plan - Minnesota Marathons - Cost Analysis

I wanted to follow-up the my previous post on running all of the Minnesota Marathons with my cost breakdown analysis for doing the events. The first expense is the cost of the races.

DATE:	NAME:	Cost	Sign-up Dates
01/12/14	Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor MarathonZoom!	$75.00	By 8/31
04/26/14	Brainerd Jaycees Run for the Lakes	$55.00	By 12/31
		$65.00	By 2/28
		$75.00	After 3/1
05/10/14	Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon	$55.00	By 12/31
		$70.00	By 3/31
		$85.00	After 3/31
05/25/14	Med-City Marathon	$55.00	By 10/20
		$65.00	By 12/31
		$70.00	By 2/28
		$75.00	By 4/15
		$80.00	After 4/15
06/01/14	Minneapolis Marathon	$79.99	No date?
06/21/14	Grandmas Marathon	$90.00	By 1/31
		$95.00	By 3/31
		$110.00	By 5/31
07/12/14	Eugene Curnow Trail Marathon	$25.00	By 6/1
		$35.00	By 7/1
		$45.00	After 7/1
09/06/14	Moose Mountain Marathon	$75.00	Registration opens 3/15th
09/20/14	Walker/North Country Races	$60.00	By 4/1
		$65.00	By 9/1
		$70.00	After 9/1
10/05/14	Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon	$105.00	Registration opens 2/1st
10/11/14	Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon	$70.00	By 5/1
		$80.00	By 7/1
		$90.00	After 7/1
10/19/14	Mankato Marathon	$40.00	Between 1/1 and 1/10
		$60.00	By 3/31
		$65.00	By 6/30
		$80.00	By 8/31
		$85.00	After 9/1

Turns out the cost for early sign-up would be approximately $795, I say approximately as I am guesstimating on a few of the races. If I signed up by the second entry cutoff period it would add another $80 and if I wait until the last entry it would add an additional $180 over early entry.

	Early	Second	Last
Cost	$794.99	$874.99	$974.99
Delta Cost		-$80.00	-$180.00

So signing up early would get me 3 marathons for free,more or less.

The other costs associated with the races would be hotel or camping and travel expenses. For the hotel costs, I used $100/night with 3 of 6 events requiring us to stay for 2 nights. For camping, I assumed we would camp 2 nights for all 6 events at a cost of $25/night. For travel, I assumed 25 mpg at $3.50/gallon.

Gas	Hotel	Camping
$420.00	$900.00	$300.00

So the cost to run all of the marathons with gas and either camping or staying in a hotel would be between $1515 and $2295. Which works out to $126 to $191 per event. 

For some folks this would seem like a lot of money to spend on running events and it might be but speaking for myself, I don't hunt, fish snowmobile, nor do we have a cabin so in many ways it isn't too expensive a hobby, all things considered.