Pulling the pin for the big picture

Okay - big news. I've had to pull the pin on the ITU race in Sydney in April! Entries for IMNZ 2012 opened about a month before I expected them to, and I couldn't pay for NZ and the expenses for Sydney - so one had to go. Given that I've been dreaming about IMNZ for three years and have so many friends who have finished and raved about it, and that Sydney was a "nice to do but not essential" race, it was a no-brainer.

Basically, I had three weeks to come up with about $1100 to pay for the race-related expenses for Sydney (food, accommodation, transfers, transport, new pedals and cleats, major bike service, cat hotel for the fur child, etc etc etc). It just wasn't possible, unless I wanted to give up my NZ dream. I chose correctly - entries for IMNZ 2012 sold out in 36 hours, and I was one of the first people to snap one up when they opened early Tuesday morning.  95% sold at 4pm NZ time on the 16th - and all gone late last night!

I lost half the entry fee for Sydney when I withdrew, but even getting 50% back is fine. I had to pay a little extra to change my flights to the following weekend so I can attend the Health & Fitness Expo in Sydney but given that it's work-related education, I can claim that trip as a tax deduction. I'm going up to Sydney straight after work on the Saturday night, and fly back Monday evening. That way I can still work Saturday, go to the expo Sunday, hopefully catch up with some friends and family Sunday night, and do some training on the Monday. I'm staying in a hostel, so my accommodation is cheap and it's centrally located so I can walk everywhere.

I'm bashing through my assessments today in between training sessions because I need this Cert IV completed. I have to come up with funds for a new bike and my expenses for Yeppoon by early June, and for NZ travel and accommodation fairly soon too.  I'll be doing crazy PT hours for quite some time, but it's a means to an end - and besides, I can sell my current bike at some point which will help! Maybe I could rent out my bike box as well?

So, that's the news. It's now all about IMNZ 2012, with Yeppoon and Shep being my C and B races. I'll do a few club ones over the next season and loads of training between now and then. I may even drag my NLP books out and re-do the worksheets!

Ciao.