Budgeting My Life

Happy Saturday! The (work) week has finally come to an end and we all survived Valentine's Day weather or not we love it, hate it, or something in between. Since my boyfriend knows I've never really put much emphasis on V Day, he surprised me with beautiful flowers one day before Valentine's, and told me "these are NOT Valentine's Day flowers, they are "just because" flowers, which made my whole week anyway. He's just really thoughtful like that.

Aren't they just the...beautifulest??? 😍 Not a bad backdrop either. 😋

Since this year has started out with a bang in the running department with my first marathon, followed by much needed track time and now training for ANOTHER marathon in April, the need to go over my budget (both money AND time) became pretty insistent.

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 Training for a marathon (and longer) is like nothing else when it comes to time put in, and with that one event everything else has to take a temporary backseat.

The Big Sur Marathon is taking place 1.) In April - that's Spring Break time, meaning hotel rates are sky high and 2.) is in a small town, meaning we will have to fly into San Jose, rent a car, then drive the hour and a half to our destination. This all means that this race will be the big trip of the year, both in training time and fun money. Add to that one ANOTHER destination race (a half marathon) in San Diego in the Summer and our year is pretty much planned out. (Don't get me wrong, I'm still super pumped to go!)

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This year most of the further away BMX races, including nationals just won't fit the bill, 😭and it really bummed me out until I talked to a good friend, S, who's on his own way to crushing the national circuit this year (he's on FIRE with all those podium finishes). He reminded me that it's OK to switch some things up, and that even though this year's not going to be like many other years, it's still a big accomplishment. It also makes me so grateful for BMX (I still have TONS of locals to race this year 😍), and grateful for the next time I get to be on the national circuit!

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Budgeting, while it wasn't always a priority, is now very big in my life if I want to do the things I love. While I can't do it all, and it has allowed me to be very grateful and to work super hard for every competition and never to take anything for granted.

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