Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Ironman New Zealand 2008 - registration

awwwwwwwwww yeah, babeeeeeeeeee!!!

FINALLY.

i’ve been waiting for the registration for Ironman New Zealand 2008 to open up. they normally hold the race the 1st week of March, and people had told me that registration normally starts about a month after, which meant April. but the website never opened up registration, and i had been waiting to sign up.

the announcement went out to applicants last week, stating an open registration time of 9am, July 2, New Zealand time. accounting for the time zone differential, this meant 2pm, July 1, Los Angeles time (New Zealand is 19 hours ahead).

i found myself actually waiting by my computer for the registration to open. i was positively giddy when i finished the registration process. and i was even happy to enter in my credit card number to pay the registration fee--although, i'm sure i won't be when i see the credit card statement show a charge of NZ$ 660 (approximately US$ 550)...you can compare this to the fee i paid for Ironman Arizona (US$ 475). ouch.

but whatever. i registered. and as far as i know, i'm set to race it.

if anybody else wants to sign up, the website is: http://www.ironman.co.nz/

rock and roll, baby.

i've stated this before, but i should probably go ahead and mention it here...i'm trying to combine my love of travel with my love of Ironman, and am trying to follow a strategy of doing Ironman races around the world, and using Ironman as an excuse to spend some time exploring locales that i (and i suspect most people) wouldn't ordinarily get to see. i figure that given the limited amount of vacation time that i'm going to have professionally, i can maximize that time by using Ironman as a form (and agenda) for travel.

this isn't a short-term project. in fact, i expect it to be a lifetime project. but that's kind of the point--it's a lifestyle, and one i'm trying to consciously choose. that, and given work and training constraints, i can foresee really only being able to fit in 1, or possibly 2, Ironmans a year. given that there are 21 Ironman races around the world, that makes as long as 21 years to do all of them.

i know, i know, all this is me just being a graduate student dreaming of a personal life, and will be subject to change given the pressures of work and family. but right now, my plan is to find a job that's flexible enough to fit this lifestyle (academia is starting to look very promising...), and i'm pretty much a single guy not even close to even contemplating the idea of marriage. so as far as i'm concerned, i'm just being who i am and intent on being who i want to be, and that means this.

rock and roll, baby.

in the near future, i know that i want to do a specific selection of races (in no particular order):
  • Ironman New Zealand
  • Ironman Australia
  • Ironman Western Australia
  • Ironman Korea
  • Ironman Tokyo
  • Ironman Brazil
  • Ironman South Africa
  • Ironman UK
for a complete list of Ironman races, reference: http://www.ironmanlive.com/events

why these for start? no reason. but i've never been to the Pacific-Asia region, and i'd dearly love to check it out--i've heard nothing but positive things from my friends who've been to the countries there. ditto for Brazil and South Africa. UK just sounds cool.

and i'm starting with Ironman New Zealand.

rock and roll, baby.

i don’t know why i’m making such a big deal out of this. i’ve plenty of triathlons before (lost count), i’ve done Ironmans before (2 so far), and i’m familiar with the global travel thing (traveled quite often in Europe). but i guess the wait had gotten me a little anxious, especially given that organizing a trip like this is going to be a much bigger logistical expedition than any tourist trip i’ve taken, since it involves packing race equipment (bike, wheels, wetsuit, etc.) and enough money to sustain an Ironman diet. in addition, i’ve never been to New Zealand, and so i don’t quite know what to expect, although being an English-speaking country and a former part of the British colonies, i suspect the culture shock won’t be that big a hurdle.

i hope to have you follow along on my journey there–or better yet, see you at the race with me.

and oh yeah: rock and roll, babeeeeeeeeeee!!!

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