In the amount of days listed above I will jump into the Hudson River in New York City, NY to begin my 140.6 mile adventure.
Ironman New York City 2012.
For the last few months I've been debating which M-Dot event at which I could accomplish my lifelong dream to do an full Ironman Triathlon. Over the last year I imagined it would be at IM Wisconsin, but I decided some place closer to home could facilitate having friends and family close by when I do this. About a week ago I found out one in NYC was opening up.
And at such a premium! 2500 slots at $895.00 for Generaly Entry, and $1500.00 dollars for Ironman Foundation. Needless to say, there better be some baller swag with this. At 12 noon some of my friends agreed to all get on at the same time as me and try to get me a slot. At around 11:57am I started just poking at the system and suddenly it let me in... By 12:02pm I had a printout of my confirmation. Success! I called off my dogs of war, and quickly realised what I was getting myself into. Crap.
I heard debate that it would either sell out in a flash, or flop due to it being expensive, in hot, steamy August, or some other reason. A little later online it was said that the general entry slots sold out in 11 minutes, according to a press release by the World Triathlon Corporation on
Bloomberg.com detailing the feat. I guess I lucked out having no waiting/busy pages.
I figure this wasn't a bad deal (mostly concerning the astronomical entrance fee) for a host of reasons: A normal Ironman comes in around $600 US (cheap, right?) but for me are typically geographically inconvenient, being one of the few IM athletes that don't bring in the average (WTC quoted) $161,000 a year salary that can travel across the country or to Europe so easily. Anything more than about 10 hour drive is annoying. Otherwise, I'd have to fly. Let's say I got a cheap flight at $400 for a west-coast race, or even $300 for an east coast race. Right there alone matches NYC entrace fee (entrance plus flight). After entrance fee and flight, I still have to get my bike there - professionally shipping for $200 or check it on the plane for $50-150 depending on the carrier (or free, again depending on the air service). Additionally, I'd need to pay for several nights of lodging (fly in, day to rest and leisurely train, night after the race to recover...). Conservative guessitmation... $1500 if I travelled to a cheaper race? At this point I've gone way past what I'll spend at NYC, and I haven't even talked about food, renting a car, or incidentals for those days.
I plan to crash with a friend who lives in the city, so I pretty much only have to pay for food and gas to get there (plus the nice bottle of bourbon my host will get... and something for his wife putting up wtih me). At this point, the astronomical registration fee allowing me to race here is already saving me money overall.
So, 422 days till the race. Lots of time to learn. Lots of time to wonder if I can do it. 423 days to come up with that Dot-M design I'll get in ink :)
Stay tuned for more.
Bone
