Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Iron Christmas 70.3- Day 2 and a few other tidbits.

First Thin First- Today is the last day for you to declare your participation in my Iron Christmas Virtual 70.3. If you are interested see the directions from yesterday's post, since I have yet to figure out how to link a picture back to another post.

Also, let me just say thank you for the support of everyone who linked, FB'ed, Tweeted, etc. I am honestly shocked at the support and really excited. I originally was hoping that one person, maybe, would sign up and that is why I included the caveat of being allowed to compete even if you only complete 2 of the legs. With such a response I had to decide how I was going to handle the 2/3rders. Early yesterday I came up with my solution- If you are participating in the challenge and are skipping a leg due to weather, pool, fear of drowning, watching jaws too many times, etc then we will treat your time like a relay. Who is your relay partner for you missing leg? Most likely me. For any missing leg I am going to give you my time or the slowest time plus 5 minutes. Most likely it will be my time, cause well, I'm slow! BUT I'm not a Clydesdale anymore!!!!

I really wanted to break it down into two divisions but don't have the prizes to support that. Speaking of prizes, I wanted to do a care package of 70.30, but thought being Christmas I decided I would do $50 and see what I could do after that. I am very excited to say that the prize has increased in value a little due to some sponsors and has now surpassed $140.6. We can call this an Ultra Prize!

If you thoroughly read the first post you remember I said there will be a catch. This will come tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Now- back to my regular scheduled programming.

I have an odd personality and I know this, I have a mix of conservative and liberal values in my own special blend. One of these has always been that I do not talk about money, sex, or religion with others. Those are personal and often able to offend others so I avoid them. With that in mind I am going to discuss one of those today........

As I wrote in my Sunday post, between my workouts Saturday I created a spreadsheet of my expected expenditures for the next triathlon season. Between doing this and watching Kona I got lost in time and forgot to go to the other workout.


I first created a list based off of essentials that I need for training and then a few things off my wishlist. I assigned each one of them a price. For some items this price is based on what my budget is, for other items it is retail price from an online source, and others are prices I get from the company direct with discounts.

I then prioritized my purchases. For instance I can't race or train without a bike, but I don't need anything else unless I am going to race. I want shoes, helmet, and pedals, but they are at the end because I have some of each I just want to upgrade or go tri specific. The last item is a weekend wheel rental from my LBS for whatever 70.3 I do. Nice to have, but not an essential.

Barring something horribly wrong happening and me taking good care of things some of these should last me a few years. It is easy to see how the price of things quickly add up. I did not calculate nutrition, gels, or bike maintenance and it is easily is over $4,000. As a civil servant it is a VERY significant portion of my net salary and it is over 3 times the yearly allowance CB gives me. Granted, not everything is a necessity but if I do want to check everything on the list off I am going to need some more financing.

Getting a job at McD's hasn't panned out yet because they keep telling me I am overqualified; plus with another job when would I train? So I am going to start thinking of some creative fundraising options.

Here are my top three ideas-
1- Pimp out Adam for his baby making abilities
2- Selling crack candy bars door to door like in elementary school
3- Taking protection fees from other bloggers like the mafia does to businesses.

ANY OTHER IDEAS???

10 comments:

Andrew Opala said...

I think the McD job is a very good option! ... and yes I want fries with that.

Kate Geisen said...

While my expenses haven't hit your level yet, I have three kids sucking up every last ounce of discretionary income that's left on a teacher's + a surveyor's pay. I've decided to try my hand at tshirt quilts, and if I can make some nice-looking ones (with 2 teenage boys, we have lots of outgrown shirts on which to practice), I'm going to see if I can get some work making quilts for other people. And if it doesn't pan out, at least our yard sale pile will be smaller!

Big Daddy Diesel said...

Ok i am in

Anonymous said...

Don't you know that the M-dot corporation KNOWS that the average triathlete makes over $125K per year......Yep, that's what they KNOW....If you find this money you and I supposedly make, please let me know....Although don't do it over the internet as that will probably be shut off by then.....

...Love your blog, happy to find it! It will keep me motivated through these dark and cold days of winter....keep it up!!

Patrick Mahoney said...

I have some money making ideas, but as you have pointed out before you are in law enforcement so I'll keep them to myself.

mackenzie said...

What about buying things used on eBay or your local craigslist?

Also, REI has AMAZING garage sales about ever 4 months or so, where you can get great deals.

mackenzie said...

And by the way, what about dividing your prizes into 2, to reward the top finishers in male and female categories? Or divide into 3 for the podium finishers?

Big Daddy Diesel said...

What about blogger relay teams, it can include other bloggers who are not triathletes

Lucas R. Tucker said...

After doing this challenge, I have decided that I would like to host another one that is strictly relay. I thought that would be pretty cool.

The Boring Runner said...

I don't know... I still think pimping me out is the best option. I'm thinking you could get $5 a pop (pun intended). so, at that rate, you'd have enough money in 7 or 8 years, tops.

(sorry this response was so late!! I'm CRAZY behind)