It's really just to choose your adventure, but you can't really compare anything to your first. Like my first 100-viler was life changing for me. You just can't put a price tag on some of these experiences. Welcome to the Trailhead of Trail Runner Nation. We're on another run this week with another interesting guest. It's going to help us become healthier, stronger, better runners and maybe just better human beings. Absolutely Scott. We're going to talk about the cost of running altruists. We know there's a financial cost, but there's also emotional costs associated with the two. That's the discussion with Colleen Miracle today. To Fosi Optics knows how important clarity is and that's why they've partnered with us with the weekly clarity on the trail tips. And I like this one Scott. This week's tip is regarding aid station and comes from Princess of Mesua. I hope they got that right. You know who you are, Princess. At aid stations, it's not justification, she writes. Know what you need before you arrive and get moving before the chair starts whispering your name. The best aid station strategy starts 10 minutes before you get there. Decide what you need while you're still moving. So when you arrive, you will move like a practice dance instead of raccoon in a snack aisle. raccoon in a snack aisle. I've seen you do that war. We'll be sending the Princess of Masoo, a pair of Tophosi optics, the new sanctum SL sunglasses for her amazing tip. For next week's clarity on the trail tip, we want to know what tip you have for recovering after a huge effort.

Post it on Instagram and tag at Tofosi Optics and at TrailRunnerNation and use the hashtag ClarityOnTheTrayal. We'll choose one submission, read it right here on the podcast. And that runner gets a brand new pair of those Tofosi Sanctum SL glasses. Check out to foceyoptics.com or check our deals tab at trailrunnernation.com for a 20% off with the code TRN20. Welcome to another edition of trailrunnernation. My name is Don Freeman. And I'm Scott Warren. This episode is gonna be kind of a fun one. It comes from a discussion that we had, Don and myself and a couple other running buddies, a few weeks ago on a Saturday run and we're talking about the costs of going to an A race. And we're just starting to enumerate all the costs. I mean, of course there's the race bib, the feed to get in, but beyond that there's travel and all that sort of stuff. So after our run, I went and I looked and I found this article that was written back in 2024. Just a couple years ago by Colleen Miracle, who is an author, she's a writer, she's a coach, she's an ultra runner. And the title of the article was the hidden costs of ultra marathonsons. And we thought, maybe this is something we should talk about on the podcast. And that's why we invited Colleen and she was gracious enough to come on and join us for a few times. But there's a lot of different costs involved, not just the bib, not just the race entry fee. There's the travel costs if you're traveling to an A race. There's the equipment cost, the number, you know, the number of pairs of shoes that you go through. There's the clothing, there's the rental car. What else do you have, Don, that you go into this? I mean, the food, the number of packages of goos that you have, and the squirrels nut butter and all that stuff. And the coaching, and like you said, some of the newest gear out there that you know you just couldn't finish that race without the newest and the greatest. It's a lot of fun to go out there and shop around, but there's a cost to that shopping. Yeah, so Colleen, thanks for joining us. The first question I have for you is, if Ultras came with a receipt at the finish line that listed every dollar, the hours of sleep that we've lost, the emotional meltdowns, the time we've taken away from work, would most runners sign up for one of these races? What do you think? And welcome to the podcast, Colleen.

We want to welcome you first before hammering you with four questions right off the bat. It's nice to join you today. Oh my gosh, it's so great to be a part of this. You know, you all were such a big part of my ultra running journey five years ago when I started. And I primarily listened to TRN on my long run. Instead of the receipt for my 100-mile error, I should add up how many hours I spent listening to TRN.

So thank you, it is abs. on my on my long run. Wow. Instead of the receipt for my 100-mile I should add up how many hours I spent

listening to TRN.

I'm just so. So thank you. It is absolutely surreal to be here. But to answer your question, Scott, finally enough in this article that I wrote two years ago, I did actually create a receipt for one of my 100-mile hours. I think it was my third 100-mile. And I added up just everything.

I thought, you know, this is costing more than I thought.

And I added up everything and it was my third-hundred-myler. And I added up just everything. I thought, you know, this is costing more than I thought. And I added up everything. And it was my A-rays. And it ended up being a lot more than I thought. And so I think with altras, it can be choose your own adventure. And I think that's why you're wanting to talk about A-rays, you know, the highest end that it could be. But it really is just about the experience that you want. I think most ultra runners, I think we can all kind of, and the trail runners and folks who choose these races would say it was worth it, right? And you guys know that like experience always ends up being worth it. And even if it's not our day, just being out there and meeting new people, I think most of us would say in the end it is worth it. And I failed to mention we're gonna link this article in the show notes so you can go read it because it's so well written. And I think you have that receipt at the bottom of the article and it can be a little shocking. It was $4,500 that you spent for this A-Race. And we want to get into that. Now, it may dissuade some people going, man, I can't afford $4,500 for a one race, but I think you'll find through this discussion, as Don and I talked about it this morning on our run, is it is worth it. The return on that investment, and let's call it not an expense, but an investment, the return on that investment is worth it for most people. Even if you don't finish, if you DNF, I think that there's some value there. Yeah. And I do think, you know, that seems like a big number, but I've also done 100 Mylors that are like $200 total. Like you know, all said done. A lot of this stuff that I put in this receipt, because I really don't wanna deter anybody when you're hearing that number, is stuff that I paid for when I started my ultra journey, like a satellite communication device, or a GPS watch. So, one of those things I've actually purchased earlier, but I wanted to just include it in the receipt. So realistically, for that actual race, it was probably at least 1,500 less than that, what you're seeing. But I wanted to include it as someone who might need all these extras and things that make them feel safer. If you're going into the mountains, maybe you do want to settle a Some races, you know, you can train on flat ground with a lot of cell service and you might actually not need one. So again, it's really picker and adventure and I don't want folks to get deterred, but it shows that it's such a range, right? You can, you can volunteer at a racing company and earn your entry and have some sort of like, um, ambassadorship ship where you get all your nutrition for free. It's really such a range. So again, I don't want folks to be deterred. I like that. There's more than one way to get there. And as long as you're aware of that journey and you strategize just like you do with any race, you try to figure out how you're gonna make your way through

to get to that finish line,

you can do that with the expenses of a race too. And because you've written that article, it brings out awareness and allows people to chart their journey. I just don't want folks to be in a situation where they're like spending more than they think. I want them to kind of have an idea of what you would be looking at. And what's really crazy about this, you guys, is this was written two years ago and think about how much costs have risen since then.

Even just I have grocery bills on here, the extra food outside of normal grocery costs, roughly 900 to $1,500. You know, that's risen. Like the economy has changed in these two years since I wrote this and travel meals and things like that, gas, things change, things are always in flux. But at the same time, and you guys know this, in these last two years, races have popped up all over the country. Like some of your a-races might be actually closer than you think. Sometimes they're just a state-of-way now or a hundred miles away rather than across the country, which is really nice. To that point, and in your article, you call out to Rio de la Gau, which happens to be a hundred mile race that's very short distance from us. In fact, we drove twice the distance this morning to get to the trailhead for our run. So we drive past that point. So there are things around us that we can grab on to and become a little more economical for sure and the resources to find those races Is unprecedented, right? You can go to ultra sign up. You can go to Ultra running dot com and they both have search engines where you can say I'm looking for this distance this difficulty of a race Within this many miles of where I live And you can find a lot of races just in your backyard, I think. So I think that's one way to reduce those costs. Definitely, I agree. That's a super helpful tool. And even just meeting folks and saying, hey, I'm trying to spend less on race entries this year, like what were some cheap ones that you found? And usually the mom and pop, you guys know,

but the mom and pop races are a little cheaper. So that's nice too. You know, of course, Scott brought this up that we were out with a group of guys that have been around for a few generations, that feels like. And as we look at some of those costs that are outlined that people are spending today, we thought back to what did it cost back in the day

what did we need to spend did we have gps watches no

you know that are outlined that people are spending today, we thought back to, what did it cost back in the day? What did we need to spend? Did we have GPS watches? No, we used the sundial way back then, but after that, we had a time X watch, and that doubled is what we needed. And so there's been a lot of changes as technology moves forward so to the cost. And is it really necessary to have all the high-end stuff? Is it? And I throw that out to both of you. Do we need everything, lightweight, carbon and hook to satellites to get going? Do we need that to enjoy the experience? Absolutely not. And I'm a running coach too, an ultra coach. And I tell my athletes, think about the basics. people were in the 80s running trail races like in road shoes. I run a lot of my trail races in my road shoes. People think that you have to have the most technical gear and everything but bare bones you're just putting your feet on the ground and you're fueling yourself and you're drinking water and you have to have a good mental mindset. You know, like, I've heard stories of people locking all their gear in their car before they're 100 mile away and guess what? These companies are established. They have the things you need at the AIDS station, you know? And so ask yourself if you would be okay, just if say you left all your stuff. Say you left all your stuff in your car. bare bones, you're trained, you have the things that you need at the aid station, you can probably get it done, you know? So I think, yeah, folks need to remember that this is not an exclusive sport. I think companies will always focus on capitalism, but you know, what's the gear that works for you? I've run my 100 Mylers in like, you know, leggings from Target for $15. It's not that serious. Just some of these expenses that you see in that receipt that we talked about, I acquired from friends, you know, over the years, like borrowing friends gear, like it just does not need to be the newest and greatest stuff. You know, Colleen, I normally don't do this, but I'm going to completely disagree with you. Absolutely, I need everything, Freeman. I need two watches. I need two GPS watches. I need to have a really nice hydration pack that just came out. You know, I need, I need it all. I need five pairs of sunglasses. I need the 10 pairs of shoes that I can choose from. So I'm just joking, of course, Culling. You think about, we joke about to get into the running sport. All you need is a pair of shoes, really. And you think back to some of the mentors of our mentors that Don and I've had that used to run with the syrup bottles as a hand held and eating, you know, just snickers bars or payday bars instead of goos. You know, you can absolutely do it on the cheap and I don't think that distracts from the experience that you're going to have. What do you think about that? Do you think that we can have the same experience for a lower price tag? Well, I do think, especially for long races, you know, if you're doing something like a 15 mile trail race or something, yeah, I think it's less time for things to go wrong and for the longer races, you do wanna have nutrition dial. Like if you've been training on your snickers, great. If you've been, if you know your belly can handle it, but at the same time, you kind of want to have a little bit of fun out there. And for the most part, I'm having fun in these long races. And it's because I have things like nutrition dialed and things like that. I've worn my packs. I'm not getting chafing right., it's two-zero in adventure, but you do kind of want to practice with what you

have on race day. And so, again, you can do it on the cheap. I know people who make their own nutrition, but they're practicing with it, right? And so usually on race day, they still have the same experience that they've had on their long runs and things. So, but yes, absolutely, I agree. I'm going to speak up for these vendors and manufacturers that they've invested in their

product because they want to improve our experience. And so a lot of these, like you said, made me think of it as, is that hydration pack. The one that rubs and creates chafage at myel X and you've got two X to go. That's a miserable experience. I mean, when you start shoving leaves and branches and other pieces of gear in between you and that pack, just to make it, you start to think, you know, that wasn't that expensive to buy that decent pack. This is miserable. I don't like it. And the sports hard enough not to include additional difficulties that you don't need. You know, that's part of the experience, right? done? not only put in leaves in between you and the hydration pack, but maybe in between the seam of your shorts because it's rubbing wrong, right? Well, you know, keep the personal details to yourself, Mr. War. What's one piece of gear that you can't live without, Colleen, that you, that you, uh, It's it's it's a make it or break it. I can't believe I forgot that piece of gear and I'm so grateful that it's out there

Oh my gosh, Well just in general sunscreen Living here in Colorado. It's crazy how much when you're sunburned in a long race or a long run takes energy away from you So I just want to throw that out there just basic sunscreen, but actual gear Yeah, I I want to say, enough, like a big enough water bladder, hydration bladder, because I always feel like I can always drink more. And there's truly nothing worse than being out in the mountains and not having enough water. So I think a good hydration system is always important. What about you, Don? Do you have a piece of gear that you won't leave home without? Yeah, a pair of shoes with two with the right feet, the left and the right. I showed up the other day with two right shoes. And that was a deal breaker. So I would say that as a minimum is probably something that I need. The rest I can limp by, especially since you have two watches and five sunglasses. I mean, whatever I might be missing, I go shopping your truck. Yeah, let's let's dwell on that for just a minute. You know, if you have two pairs of the same model, same color shoe, make sure you don't you don't put them together or else you show up at the trailhead like Don did the other day with two right, right footed shoes.

I got to know what you did. What happened? Well, Scott, you can share the picture after this podcast because it's an honest mistake. It was, you know, it was a pair of hokas. They were color scheme the same, but one subtle difference. One had the name hoca. They had some markings on it. And otherwise they were identical. And they looked the same at 6 in the morning.

And so I grabbed them through them and they were sitting next to each other and not until

I tried to put on two right shoes that I realized I was in for a long day. Colleen, we did get the run in. We actually ended up going back to Don's house where he could get a left shoe and he has some trails that are near his house and we still got the run in.

So we didn't abandon the run. Good to hear. I'm glad you got done. Now, you know, what else has improved is fuel on the trail, technology. I mean, from the paydays that's got talked about, which sometimes are lifesavers. And probably one of the best old school types of fuel out there. You have some protein in it, some salt in it,

and some good, quick carbohydrates.

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