True Value
Cars, travel, pets, great coffee & paradise bars at Alterra’s on the Wisconsin Lakeshore, we live in a culture & time where so many of our pleasurable & memorable experiences have a price tag associated with them, even if it’s just burning gasoline driving to the state park to shuffle your feet through autumn leaves. Of course, the best things in life are still free, but a lot of cool things aren’t.
Quite frequently I have had people ask me how much my skates cost. I usually do tell, but I always immediately launch into one of my verbal convolutions about money & value & experience & travel & friendships that somehow never comes out the way I intend. So here is my shot at getting it right.
The central concept I want to invoke runs something like this: You can attach a dollar sign to most of the things we do as 21st century inhabitants. But what is the value & use these items & experiences add to our lives? Examining and being aware of our dollar habits, and how it flavors our emotional life is the crucial awareness that explains the lengths skaters & other athletes go to in pursing their sports.
I can give an answer to what my Canadian Van Horne skating boots & Dutch Viking blades cost me, roughly $1200 (2002 prices, since the dollar has tanked, it would be more now…) That is a significant chunk of change, but compared to what many bicyclists spend on bikes, or what ANY SPORT WITH A MOTOR costs, this is cheap for Olympic caliber equipment that will last for years. Even average runners can wear out 3-4 pairs of $100+ shoes a year. In 3-4 seasons, that costs as much as my custom carbon fibre speedskates.
But the price of skates is not speedskating, and indicates nothing of the value of sport & your own personal experience. Instead of asking obsessed/intense speedskaters what their skates cost, if you want to reveal the charged intersection of the spiritual/financial hotwire, instead ask them “how much have you spent on travel to get to races/practice in the last few years?”
Usually the response will be a rolling of the eyes, a hesitation, a groan, and then finally something like “damm, I don’t want to know”.
Then follow up your question with, “Where have you traveled? Do you have friends in faraway places? What are some of your road-trip memories from races? Who are the good people you never would have met unless you did this crazy sport?”
Then the groan is replaced by a smile, and the flood of true value comes rushing forth.
Every skater has their stories, their connections. There are about 10 different places I can think of where I if I showed up to inline or ice skate, I would be greeted like a valued member of the wandering skate-gypsy tribe; and I have developed strong friendships that go far beyond skating, friendships forged in the emotional smelter of racing that are now something else. Most skaters are like that too, since the community is so small, you develop strong connections. I started writing names of good folks I think of and miss. The list quickly became 30+ people, but I decided not to include it here, because I could barely scratch the surface of this eccentric & good-hearted tribe of blade and wheel.
But there is one name I will mention in closing, because true value & travel sometimes results in serendipitous connections with old friends completely unrelated to skating. I have known Satya since I was 13. We went to middle/high school together at ACS, & then attended undergraduate just down the road from each other (Hampshire for me, Smith for her). These days Satya is a smart fish in a big think tank, working as an alternative energy analyst at COWS in Madison, Wisconsin. After I was done racing at US single distance champs a few weeks ago, we went out for brunch and had a wonderful multi-hour catch up on the past DECADE of our lives. Circuitously I have my moth-like obsession with skating & the money I spent to travel to that race, to thank for it. That is true value, & worth every penny.
Filed under: from home
How CAN you measure the experience in $$$’s? I think it would be a challenge to quantify it. Until recently, I was not able to lay down the $$$’s necessary to finance all five trips to SLC since Aug ‘05. Granted, each trip costs me around $500, but this money is coming out of savings. When you consider how much it has cost me to improve my LT speedskating skills, I think $2500 is pretty inexpensive. And yes, I too spent $1200 on my skates. So far, I’ve only been on 400m ice for about 9 weeks, so $1200 is still pretty steep!
I always desire more money, but there are benefits to being limited in resources. If I could afford to stay in SLC full-time, there’s a pretty good chance I’d be overtrained by now, or sick with the cold. I have seen the overtrained and sick skaters since Aug and am grateful I have not been one of them.
As a fan, I’d have to say that the amazing friends I’ve made all over the world out weigh the money by far. All of the money in the world couldn’t buy the friendship and experiences of just one of the people, much less all of them. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, because I can’t believe the things I’ve experienced, although I do know that a lot of it has been a blessing and that it’s not what the average fan gets to do.
I have to always thank everyone, including the ones I’ve had falling outs with, who have given me time in the past!!!!!
That picture exudes your pleasure to all of us. it wa hard to stop looking at both of you T.O.M.
I agree that it’s more important to talk about the experiences and the friends, and I’m glad you posted this today, because I recently got caught in a conversation about something expensive but unrelated to skating - straightening my hair. I love it straight. I spend money once a year to get it straightened, and then I’m happy with it all the time. Anytime I talk about it (to anyone who doesn’t do it), they’re shocked at how much it costs and they assume my family and I are terribly rich. I feel like sitting down with a pen and paper and asking… But how often do you go out to dinner? How much do you spend each time? How much do you spend on drinks per month? How much do you spend on movies per month? How much do you spend on shopping for clothes in a whole year? etc…. Guess what, I probably spend LESS on my hair. And then I’m happy when I look at it.
People are always asking me about how much skates cost, and they’re often shocked. I see a lot of value in having the equipment I need to train and race as well as I can. I’m competitive and want to race, no matter what I’m doing. I love having my friends from skating. It’s also worth a lot to me to be very fit and healthy. I’m happy with what I’m doing. Oddly, when people are occupied with being shocked about how much skates cost, they don’t think to ask how I spend the rest of my time OR whether I also get to see friends and family outside of skating as much as I’d like…. Even though I wouldn’t argue with winning the lottery or something, I think it’s strange that so many people are so interested in how much this or that costs.
My experience with Andrew is that he walks a tightrope of financial prudence and pursuit of his dreams. He has definitely been on both sides of the fence, and in our marriage when he has had money (working at e.Cornell) it’s been nice! Now is definitely a time when he leans precariously towards the side of debt.
This post makes me happy to read because I have shared in some of his travels and met a good chunk of his friends. I have benefitted from this perceived cost of living that may seem excessive to some. I am also glad to know that this lifestyle he’s living isn’t forever, and he doesn’t want it to be forever. I guess my point is that we’re a “silver lining” type of couple, and I am enjoying this ride too.
I had a moment of fear when I saw my wife was typing in a comment into the blog (I think she has only commented once or twice before).. but it was a small moment of irrationality.. she rocks… : )
I agree 100% with the concept that one can’t put a price tag on wonderful friendships/experience,
but what is worth worrying about is that during the pursuit of friendships/experience/etc that one does not cripple oneself financially…
there absolutely is a rational balance point, to claim otherwise is to invite disaster…
this is a sore spot for me personally also because I had a time in my life where I really suffered financially with a small business…. those scars still hurt, and I am always thinking “ok, am I walking an appropriate balance between skating/debt/working/experience”
(this all said, I am REALLY glad to have the web design/web content clients that I do, especially Chad Hedrick.. it helps tremendously, and it gives me a flexible project based schedule that I can also train with…)
Carla’s point is very sharp in this respect, life is a question of choices.. CD/DVD purchases or speedskates? occasional shopping trips to the mall or or a years worth of ice time? Bar time with friends once a week or pay your coach for a full year of intense attention?? Carla is extremely frugal, we have talked a lot about money (often over paradise bars at alterra!) and from my observation as a friend she is totally justified in spending on her wild mane and skating ambitions, as she does without on so many other things……
choices, choices, choices… with eyes open…
no cosmic comment here. Did you tell Satya that I said hi? Or would of if I knew you were seeing her?
True Value
Zen and the Art of Speedskating » True Value
How true!
One really has skating friends all over the world it seems, skaters seem to be such nice people. Very strange for me. In the end the friends I have made while skating make any expenses seem i…
[…] adv=1&q=1&imgsubcat_id=8&icons=1″ target=”_blank” title=”Valle Hovin”> Zen and the Art of Speedskating » True Value How true! One really has skating friends all over the […]
What is the big saying you hear on this subject? You spend months training, mucho bucks for equipment and “stuff”, hours of travel, hours, sometimes days in cold rinks..for a total of MAYBE 15 minutes of race time! But the friends I’ve made along the way? That is priceless!!
To co-opt a popular credit card commercial:
1 Pair of custom Van Horne speedskating boots - $700
1 Pair Viking Nagano Gold Sprint blades - $525
Jig, stones and other sharpening paraphernalia - $350
1 RAPS Flash skinsuit - $750
Ice time - $8/session
Knowing that you’ve given your absolute all in training, racing, and in life - PRICELESS
The self-esteem I’ve regained, the relationships, friendships, experiences, and life lessons I’ve learned in just this past 18 months of speedskating have been priceless. Just to see my buddy Andrew smash his Pettit personal record in the 500 at last year’s US Championships, and to hear him shriek with excitement, knowing that he’d done his very best, that was worth far more than any $$$ value!
Renee,
thanks for the comment!!
I do tend to howl when I set a Personal Best!!! and in that particular race, I knew 100m before I crossed the finish line, that I had popped off a really good one…
its funny how that credit card commerical has become such a popular way to quantify life… as it emphasizes that intersection of money & memory…