What a Difference a Week Makes

A lot can happen in a week.

This time last week my season was over and I was into my second week of getting St Pete's and my life back to some sense of normality.  We were doing fun weekend stuff, I had caught up on sleep and we were enjoying our evenings after work not having to schedule everything around training.  I had taken the option of doing Ironman Australia (Port Macquarie) off the table and was satisfied with that decision.  I had had a good season, finished off IMNZ (albeit a 70.3) in good shape and was starting to think about IMNZ 2013.

And then on Friday afternoon the email from IMNZ arrived in my inbox, setting out the promised options for those of us wanting to do a replacement ironman event.  As I cast my eyes down the list I saw the expected IM Australia but then also saw a second Australian option.

Ironman Cairns.

Within the previous couple of days, WTC had announced it had bought the events management company that ran the Challenge Cairns event and the resulting fallout of that would mean that Challenge Cairns would become Ironman Cairns in 2012. And I could do that event for much less than I was expecting the discounted prices to be.

I didn't think too much more about it other than to confirm to St Pete that the price of entry did mean I was tempted, but by the end of the day St Pete was suggesting that I give IM Cairns serious consideration.

So, like a good Irongirl, I did!

Over the weekend we did a review of the likely costs involved and then had a long Skype conversation with Coach Dave to make sure that, after a two week complete break, he was confident I had time to pick things up and have a decent crack at it. We agreed that there was no point pressuring myself to get up for Port Mac, however the extra month available for Cairns made it a definite starter.

One casualty out of the decision was the New York marathon. We were confirmed in a New Zealand group to head over in November to do this iconic event. However we couldn't afford to do both. In the end it we decided we had been to New York before and the marathon would always be there to do in the future. In contrast, Cairns was a new destination for us and this was a one-time opportunity for me to finish a not quite perfect season on a high note (or on a much better note than it currently was!).

It will also give me a third IM "finish" which could be valuable if I ever get to the stage of securing a Kona spot via the "12 finishes" pathway!

So, within the space of a week, this Ironman junkie has her name down for Ironman Cairns and training is back on...74 days to go ... excited!