Raising money...

I've been really inspired by the effort that people on here have gone to for charity.

Maybe if I just give people my story...

I was super active through high-school and into college (played a lot of rugby, sailed at international level etc), but graduated, got a good job and put on 25kgs (around 50lbs) in 5-yrs through eating junk food, smoking, drinking heavily and living the good life. Only real excercise was ski-ing. Also developed a bit of an "image" at work and amongst friends for my taste for the good things in life.

I moved to Australia about a year ago and decided that enough was enough (everyone else in this country is RIPPED). Have now managed to give back 15 of those kgs and get back into much better shape through rowing and now tri training.

Given the industry that I work in (banking) the divdends from charity collection (for marathons, mountain climbs etc) tend to be pretty good ($5k not being an unreasonable target), and especially for those who do it as part of a bigger life change. My former colleagues (still work for the same firm) haven't seen me for 10 months or so and so would get a pretty big surprise. As I plan races over the next 6-12months (including a marathon, a 1/2 IM and a full) I am thinking of doing something for charity at the same time but don't think its good form to "go to the well" more than once. So have a couple of questions:-

- What is people's view on getting charity sponsorship for doing a tri? (especially IM or 1/2). Don't really see much of it whereas marathon seems quite common.
- Do people think I would get more from doing a marathon (which would surprise people in itself) or waiting (people may get to see the new me in the meantime as I will be spending more time overseas this year) and doing it for an IM instead? Or is marathon in September and IM in March far enough apart? Or once I've done a marathon are non-athletes going to think that an IM isn't really a step up?

Just trying to maximise the amount that I can raise.