I need help making a big decision (Page 2)

it would go farther than you think in Australia.  Plus get ahold of some BTers that are there.  If they are willing, you can crash with them.  Nan and I stayed at a BTers house for a week during the race.  It was awesome!!  You get the real feel of the place that way.

heh, at least your a consistent a-hole who never misses the opportunity to trash someone else's performance.

Anyhoo.........

Robin - In 1999, I was 33, quit my big law firm job cuz I hated it, and traveled for 6 months.  5 months was on my own, my wife joined me for about 5 weeks in Europe - yes, I was married, and yes, she let me go.

I had a budget of about $100 per day.  That was tons in Thailand, not so much in Jordan.  It was lonely at times, and getting on the plane was one of the scariest things I've done, but I can say without a single doubt that it was THE BEST THING I'VE EVER DONE FOR MYSELF.  It cost a bit of money, since I paid the rent and my part of the bills while i was gone, but I could not place a dollar value on that experience.  I had a dream to travel around the world.  And I did.

There is a HUGE backpacker trail, very easy to follow, english spoken everywhere (if you want), good hostel recommendations, people to travel with, etc etc.  There are thousands of people of all ages doing this right now.

One regret is moving a little too fast.  But I spent nearly two weeks on a single island off the coast of malaysia, spent maybe $200 the whole time, diving, sleeping, eating, drinking.....  And the sights... oh my.  Diving the great barrier reef, seeing the daintree rainforest and Kakadu Nat'l Park in Australia, Malaysian rainforests, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Bangkok, the Taj Mahal in Agra, Wadi Rum and Petra in Jordan, the Sinai, Kathmandu.... I saw some incredible stuff.  And some incredible things I never thought I'd do (kinda like triathlons).  Flying to Cambodia with no hotel reservation or transport or contact or......  Just found a driver at the airport and had hom bring me to a couple hotels.

For reference, I started going west and didn't stop until I got back home (not for showiing off but a good representation of a common route):

New Zealand
Australia
Malaysia
Thailand
Cambodia
Nepal
India
Jordan
Egypt
Israel
Europe starting in Rome and ending in Ireland

Check airtreks.com.  You can put together one way tickets for a really good deal.  I think I paid $2500 in 1999 for all the above airfare (and added more along the way based on talking to people, I.e. skipped Bali and added Darwin, Aus)

Do it.  You won't regret it.

Edit - you can do it even cheaper than I did.  The cheapest I paid was about .80 for a room in Dahab, Egypt, then moved to an oceanfront room for $20 the next night   People were doing it on like $50 a day, for two.  That was too tight for me.

And as for fitness.  I lost a TON of weight, because I was walking everywhere.  Plus I was eating less (lots of Ramen noodle dinners good times)

Travel!  Whether you do it with or withuot a bike - definitely travel.  I wish we had done something like that before we had kids.  I already plan trips in my head for when the kids are a little older.  I have a friend (a girl) who has travelled all over S. America by herself so if you want I am sure you could e-mail her with any questions.  She just got back from a month long trip to Vietnam by herself.

Good luck - I can't wait to find out what you do!

An Ironman with money to burn, contemplating travel possibilities with no ties... are you my dream?

I say do what you really feel like - you're in a unique situation to do so. For me, that would be travel; it sounds like it would be the same for you. You can probably swing it so you can do more than that also (a little of everything).

Congrats on your good luck, and your FANTASTIC IM TIME!! And definitely let us know what you end up doing.

never mind.  how pathetic

 Travel, travel, travel!!! You're an Ironman, next you have the money and the courage to take off. Niiiiice!

Every time I've ever taken time off to travel it's been the right choice for me. And some of the best times I've had have been solo. THere are a lot of great people to meet, often that you might not meet if you were with others. I try to set it up where I travel alone and then either visit someone or meet a friend a few months in.

Have a great time!

My three daughters, the Geezerettes, are always traveling.  They did a trip together to Costa Rica.  Geezerette #1 spent a semester working in Paris.  G2 spent a summer in London at LSE and a year in Morocco.  She is working in Madagascar right now.  G3 spent a semester in Chile.  I cringe at the tight spots they have gotten into and out of but they are incredibly resourceful and resilient from the experiences.  Go for it.

Not that you asked, but I think 14 hours at IMAZ means bragging rights for a lifetime.

TW

Maybe I didn't read the OP very well but from reading all the posts I'm gathering that the 15K is not your profit as I orginially thought, it is the portion of the profit you've decided is your play money?  That makes a big difference.

This is not what I'd do, but based on what it seems YOU want to do I think you should EITHER travel - as an adventure and hold off on the bike purchase for now OR do IM Austrailia and get a tri bike (which obviously will include travel as well.  You could even make it an extended stay in Australia and see the country while you train for the race. 

My point is I wouldn't buy a fancy tri bike and then go travel only to have to arrange for storage for my new tri bike and then not ride it while it is new.  You may be a different person/have different priorities when you return and a 3-5K dollar tri bike might not be part of your life.