Karen writes: Homes away from home

Events are one thing, you make a decision (hard part), make your booking and pay your entry fee so you cant easily back out. You then think about all the practical things, like if it is an 'away' event, where do you stay? For any event, is it cheap, clean, quiet, good basic amenities like a fridge and preferably microwave, good transport or parking? For a marathon, is it somewhere you can easily walk home to if you have left all of your energy on the road? Does the walk take you past somewhere you can grab some suitable food (I like ice-cream shops or smoothie shops like Tank), do you need to climb ten flights of stairs before you can collapse, is there a good shower?    For a bikeride, can you get the bikes into the room safely and still be able to move around, do you have to worry about getting chain grease on expensive white furnishings.  For a big triathlon like Ironman, well, more space needed definitely for the whanau and so you can move around and set out all the myriad of gear and can dry your sodden swimgear.  Your need some sort of cooking facilities, and is it easy for the athlete to get to the start-line with minimal energy expenditure and preferably not having to drag someone out of bed for transport at some horrendously early hour.

We have just had a little flurry of making bookings for events after we get back from our respective travels, first up is the Taupo cycle challenge on 29 November. Kate after much searching has found a tiny flat upstairs in the heart of Taupo, really close to the startline, and it seems to have everything we need.  She was getting a bit frustrated because there seemed to be nothing available for a while, but fortuitously a cancellation came up for this place and she grabbed it. It looks so good I have booked it myself for Ironman next year, hopefully when we check it out in November we wont find that it is a rat infested heap on top of a popular night-club or next to all-night heavy industry.  Then in December we have the Rotorua half ironman, we've booked our favourite art deco house same as we have done for years. It is the coolest house, the kids love it, for my family in particular its the start of Christmas as we turn up with bikes (the bikes have their own bedroom) for the triathletes, running and swimming gear, and of course Christmas tree.

Art Deco house Rotorua

It is a relief to know that there is somewhere to call home confirmed wherever we may be, and having paid the money it is yet one more motivator to actually turn up on the day. Now it is just the training to worry about. As usual. But I can worry about training for those events in September, after my Brisbane run, which isn't so far away now, just over four more weeks.