Throwing in the towel? Being a "pussy" or fiscally responsible.

Well my dreams to do Ironman New Zealand in 2009 are pretty much on life support and it looks like the wisest thing for me to do at this point is pull the plug. Part of me hates to do this it's like pulling a DNF although in hind sight it's usually the right call.Part of it was my own fiscal situation, all the crap happening at home this summer tapped my resources, and it has just been a slow crawl back to where I need to to be. The other part of it was finally succumbing to the endless litnany of "it's too damn expensive", "it's your senior year of college, you should be devoting that time to trying to graduate." "Do Arizona." " You're nuts..." " Just do sprints." "find a real job" "get a haircut"..etc. The part that irks me is I sidded with all the naysayers. Last year people told me the same dose of reasons why I shouldn't do it,and I pretty much spat in their face and said "watch me!" I hate to always go the path of least resistance..but it seems like that's what the game plan is going to be in 09. The Ironman motto may be "anything is possible." but in the real world there are just somethings that aren't...and for me it's the starting line in Taupo on March 7. Now I will have some student loan money and a tax refund rolling in in January/February but with this being the 25th Anniversary the race will most likely sell out. Likewise part of me would rather put that cash to better use. I have some credit cards I need to pay off /down, I'd like to buy my car insurance for the year, relieve that burden off my parents and also just like to know it's paid in full... so I won't miss a payment and have it canceled. Pretty much I can come up with more practical uses for $5k than traveling halfway around the world. So that's where I'm at, part of me beliving I'm a pussy that I didn't give this race the honest fight and the other part calcualting how many bills race entry could pay off.

R.D.