Races and a Budget-Challenging Weekend

Ok, so much for my decision to not run any more races for a while.   I have no idea what went wrong on Monday, but I had my worst-ever 10k finish.   They haven’t posted exact times yet, but my watch was showing about 48 minutes.   Ouch.   That’s almost 4 minutes slower than I should have gone.   I don’t know why the wheels came off.   I felt good, I didn’t cramp or have any obvious problems during the race – I was just SLOW.   Anyway, so now I’m obsessed with redeeming myself in my own eyes (as far as  my friends are concerned, I did just fine and they wouldn’t care if I had run it in an hour and 48 minutes).   But I have found some other local 10k races in June and July, and I’ll be signing up for those soon.   I guess I was ok with the idea of not running any races for a while as long as I had a great last race.   But I can’t stop now!   So I will have to include a few race entry fees in my budget for this summer.  

I’m leaving tomorrow for a girls’ weekend with some friends from college.   We’re going to a little mountain town for a few days to hang out and catch up.   Two of the girls are 6 months pregnant right now, so I doubt we’ll do much bombing down mountains on our bikes.   More like sitting around the lodge scrapbooking.   I’m looking forward to seeing them, but it’s always a challenge to stay within our normal budget when I hang out with these girls.   One works for the DEA and between herself and her husband, they make about $160k.   Another is a physician’s assistant and her hubby is a doctor (both part time, so they make around $100k).   They would think nothing of a $700 weekend.   The place we’re staying is $180/night – luckily there are 5 of us staying there, so the total lodging should only be $110each.   But then one of the girls wants us all to go to a spa for an afternoon.   She’s already booked a massage ($70) and a facial ($50).   I think I’ll be sitting by the pool reading a book during that time.   My budget for the weekend is $230, which should be doable.   I’m one of the drivers to get us up there, so my friends will help with gas money.   We’re only going out toeat once, so that will help.   We’re each bringing food to cook, so I have to go shopping today for that.   We’re not leaving until tomorrow afternoon, but everyone is spending the night at our house tonight, since we’re closest to the airport where two of the girls are flying in.   Tomorrow morning, everyone wants to go shopping, so I will be wandering through the mall for a few hours, but since there’s nothing I need right now, I won’t be buying anything.   That will help with sticking to the budget.     I’ll tell you all about it next week.