Dec 20th, 2009
What I’ll Sacrifice to Go to Philadelphia
I’ve been contemplating going to Philadelphia in August to do the Livestrong Challenge, both the 10K run on Saturday and the century ride–in this case a bit over 95 miles, but let’s just call it 100, okay?–on Sunday. There’s entry fees, like any other event, which are not substantial, and there’s fundraising requirements, which are meaningful but probably not too difficult to reach. And of course, there’s the events themselves, which I’m training for (and I’ve done several centuries and runs longer than 10K before, so while I’m sure it’ll be tough, I also am sure I can finish them).
And then there’s the matter of getting myself and my Bianchi there, housed, and on the course of the event. And that’s where the big obstacle is: funding the trip.
I’m still running some numbers, but I’ve figured out there are a few things that are definitely going to have to be sacrificed in 2010 to hit Livestrong:
Mobile broadband: The $34 or so (including tax) I pay for my MobiPCS Hele makes it about as cheap as possible, but it’ll have to go, especially considering my phone can do much the same thing. I was hoping to possibly replace this with a data only Sprint smartphone (possibly one running Android) but that is out for this year too.
New digital SLR: I really want a Nikon D300s, but that was probably not going to happen. However, a Nikon D5000 was a possibility. Unfortunately, that is also going to have to wait until at least 2011.
New desktop: My hand built machine that’s down in my computer dungeon is cheap and runs okay but it pales in comparison to newer equipment. I was thinking I might treat myself to the same Core 2 Quad machine I got my niece for the holidays, but that’s definitely not going to happen either.
And probably more. I haven’t fully figured out the costs of this trip yet–transportation will be an issue, but so will housing. The hostel I stayed at during my one and only previous trip to Philadelphia is about 20 miles from the start of the event, but how much it’ll cost me to get to and from there I don’t know, and there are other options like hotels (although they don’t really appear substantially closer). Hopefully I can get some more information about what would be best from previous Livestrong participants.
