Iron Pol

With the economy and events of the past year, planning races for next year is becoming a challenge.  Though luckier than many, the economy has stretched our family budget pretty tight.  I made it through the year with my job, but made several adjustments to my payroll deductions due to cuts at work.  They stopped all matching contributions to our 401(k), so I upped what I was contributing.  Which meant less take home pay.

Then, we had the Great Bathroom Fiasco of 2009.  With tile walls collapsing faster than Wall Street, we spent far more than planned on repairs.  Add the skylight to that, and we blew the budget.  Obviously, that will have an impact on race spending in the coming year.

That poses quite a dilemma.  How do I race without spending tons of money.  Two thoughts come to mind.  First, I can try to bandit a bunch of races.  I'm not fond of that approach for a couple reasons.  It doesn't really work for triathlons.  And I really only feel okay with it when I'm pacing a first time marathoner in a race I didn't plan on running.

My second thought is to be my own race director for the season.  I do plan on running the Green Bay Marathon in May.  That will be a PR attempt.  After that, I'm thinking I'll put together my own events.

The pinnacle of that will be a self-supported Iron distance triathlon.  In the past, I've considered trying to do an indoor Ironman at the YMCA, the Y-ronman.  Now, I'm thinking of the mIronman (say "My Ironman" really fast).  I can do the swim in Lake Winnebago (point to point), bike around the lake (and then some) to my house, and take off on a 26.2 mile loop, ending back at the house (or somewhere cooler).

And if I'm running the event, myself, is there something to be said for "rounding" the distances, and doing a 3-mile swim, 150 mile bike, and 50K run?  Crazy?  Double tough?  Idiotic?

After that, I'm thinking about how to put together a solo 50-miler or 100K.