The Cost of NOT Running the Half-Marathon
Posted on August 11, 2008 by Him and tagged health, hsa
If you've been reading this blog for a while (and who hasn't) you'd know that last year I ran my 1st half-marathon; I spent almost $500 on training and other associated costs in preparation for it. This year I signed up for another one and heeded the advice I received from the prior blog post, namely not buying so many sports drinks and using regular band-aids to protect my oh-so-sensitive nipples. The cost of the race was $55, and that included a tech shirt. Woo.
I've been training mostly by myself for the past 3 months; I used much of the experience I obtained from last year and added fartleks and other speedwork so that I could improve my time from last year, along with helping me get faster for soccer.
Then, last Sunday morning, I woke up with a stiff back, and a lot of generalized pain in my lower back. I stupidly went ahead and played soccer, thinking that the pain would go away after I warmed up. Not so - it ended up getting worse after the game. On Monday I could barely walk - we ended up driving to work and had to pay $16 for parking.
After a steady regimen of ibuprofen and rest, my back seemed like it was getting better as the week went on. Until Friday, that is. It felt as worse as it did on the previous Monday. I decided I had enough and ended up calling my primary care physician to see if he could diagnose me and give me something for the pain. He diagnosed me with a sacroiliac joint strain, and prescribed me some pain meds, told me to take some OTC meds for pain and inflammation, heat treatment, and rest. I'm pretty sure that visit will cost me around $300, which of course will be paid with funds from my HSA. I ended up buying some OTC naproxen and some pain relieving patches, for a grand total of about $20.
Yesterday morning was a picturesque Chicago summer day; cooler than usual, around 60F with a cool breeze. A perfect day to run a half-marathon, specicically the Chicago Distance Classic. Well, it would have been a good day to run 13.1 miles, but instead I was at home nursing a back injury.
I can't help but feel a little defeated that I couldn't run; in my head I know that the 3 months of training helped me maintain my fitness and helped me reach new goals.
It just sucks that I ended up paying almost $400 for a shirt.
Comments/Trackbacks
Trackback URL: http://www.makelovenotdebt.com/MT/mlnd-trackbacks.cgi/1260
Hannah | Aug 29, 2008
Have you ever tried chiropractic care or physical therapy? PT can cost a lot, but chiropractors are generally pretty cheap compared to doctors. And physical therapists and chiropractors both take a more holistic approach, i.e. preventing the injury from happening again.
kim | Aug 13, 2008
on running - one of the things that keeps me from buying all of the gizmos avaiable is that often the people with the gizmos don't do so well at races b/c they rely too much on them & don't train as well, or they are distracting.
sorry about your back - that stuff comes out of nowhere!
Reply to this comment