Today I ran (ha ha, yeah right), ok, ran/walked the Spartan Sprint in Conyers, Ga at the Horse Park.

It was a 4+ mile race with A LOT of obstacles. http://www.spartanrace.com/index.html. We started off the race in the corrals yelling “I am Spartan!” I was invigorating! The MC was talking about everyone helping each other, even if you were running on your own someone would help you. I thought that was great until I asked for a hand and some guy clapped for me and then laughed at me, I didn’t think that was very helpful, but oh well. There were other places we helped each other, that was cool.

If you didn’t do an obstacle, you had to do 30 burpees! For those of you who don’t know what this torture is, check out the following link:
https://www.google.com/search?q=burpees+exercise&hl=en&client=safari&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=o_Q7Uf-RHou09gSkj4DQAw&ved=0CEEQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=672.

There were four obstacles I didn’t do and admittedly, I only did burpees at one of them and between you and me I’m ok living with the fact that I skipped 4 obstacles. (The one I did burpees at, and quite badly, admittedly, I had completed most of the obstacle, grrr). There were 7 & 8 foot walls (skipped) and ropes, tires, bricks, sandbags, javelins, barbed wire and lots and lots of mud! I’m still getting mud out of places!

I got my t-shirt and my medal (an odd pain in my knee) and the bragging rights, I am good with that!

Last weekend I did the Diva Dash and next weekend I am doing the Foam Fest 5k, apparently I like doing this obstacle races!

Ok, so, here is where the title of my blog comes in. Regular 5k races are generally about $25 starting and then the cost goes up the closer you get to the race. It’s worth it, you get to be a part of something, get some exercise and a t-shirt, (my Monster Dash half marathon jacket is my favorite, I’m wearing it right now) sometimes a medal and a belt buckle, how can you argue with that?

Half marathons start about $55 and up and some marathons start about $125, Disney races are ridiculous! Obstacle races start about $50 and up, when I registered for the zombie run last year, Run For Your Lives, I paid $85, I signed up late, this year, I registered for $45, timing is everything!

Sometimes, you can find a deal on Groupon, Living Social, Half Off Depot. I found the Spartan Race on Living Social, sign me up! The Vampire Run 5k coming up in April had so many people get the deal, it bogged up the race sight for registrations.

The only bad part about today…I purchased the deal for Sunday but they didn’t have enough registrations for Sunday, so I did the race today. The bad part was that I was supposed to have brunch with my good friends, SS and SD and meet their new daughter, my new “niece” SDS, pook…I know I can reschedule, but I was really looking forward to it!

I’m ok, mostly, with the cost of registration, the organization needs to make money. Parking at some events cost money, generally $10, I understand that, the host location needs to make money, I’m sure they are getting something from the race organization, but we are parking on their grass, so they might be using the money towards landscaping among other things.

Then the race organization sells t-shirts, socks, bags, all sorts of swag (yes, I have bought some additional swag, not every time, sometimes I want a little something extra and today I DID NOT buy the race bag!!! Be proud of me!). Why not, merchandising doesn’t hurt anything, it’s great advertising for the organization and we feel great wearing it, I love my I ❤ Warriors shirt.

Where I have an issue…you have to sign a waiver for all of the obstacle races, if you actually read the waiver, you might not do the race! (By signing this, you understand that you can be injured, catch something by swimming in the water and if you die, you can't blame the organization!). I sign the waivers.

Now, all of a sudden, in addition to paying for the race, you have to pay for race insurance, $12-$15 each time, really? So, I pay $65 for a race, then $12 for insurance? Next week, if I forget to bring the waiver to the Foam Fest, it costs $1??? For a piece of paper?!? Normally bag check is free, today at the Spartan Race, $5 for bag check?!? Really?

I'm all for making a buck, but c'mon…

Ok, rant over, icing my knee and chilling out, looking forward to Waffle House for breakfast!