Wil: Canada is the odd man out in terms of signing up for the race. In Canada, you basically have to be present the day after the race itself to sign up. There are is no online registration. So your options if you want to do that race are to fly there and register yourself the day after the race, have someone doing the race sign you up, or to enter via a Community Fund spot or something similar (there are some training camps that also provide entry for races, etc). All the other IMNA events, to my knowledge, all have first come first serve online registration.

Mike: Good points about post-marriage training. My fiancee has been very supportive of me in my training and what not. I’ll have to talk to her about what she thinks of me training basically right after we get married next year. I think she’ll be fine with it, but it never hurts to talk to her about it and ask.

I have until one month before the race to decide if I want to push it back to another one. If my friend really decides that he’d rather do Florida this year, it might make my decision easy?

When do you have to make the decision?

From your last couple of posts on the subject, it seemd like you are leaning against doing the race.

Another question, are you getting married next year? Do you want to do ironman training as a newlywed? And, how does your future wife feel about it? I’m guessing she has gone through the experience once, but I don’t know how marriage will complicate your life and training. I had been really excited about doing an IM in ‘06, but I’m more excited about spending time with my future wife so I think I’ll push it back a year. I guess my point - if I have one - is that IM training is really demanding and time consuming and there will always be a give and take. There will be issues next year as well which could “talk you out of doing the race.”

Despite your run training issues, you seem pretty ready for the race and don’t downplay the race knowledge you gained from last season.

In the end, it’s a personal decision and you should do what feels right to you.

One thing I didn’t understand about standing in line to register, can’t someone just sign you up on via the net? Like if you just left you CC # with your friend or something? Seems that would save having to stand in line ;)

Oh and your comment about regret for not racing if you are just an outisde viewer…that would be tough too.

If it were me and I had the base fitness down, I would probably do it…but that is just me. Do what you need to do; we support you either way!

I am not planning on doing IMC next year as I have already signed up for IMCDA, but if I stick around for the awards ceremony (which I am planning on doing at this point), then I could stand in line for you.

I think it is great that they give you the option of transfering your community fund spot to other races. The first two years I did Canada was through a community fund spot.