Transporter room, come in. TRANSPORTER ROOM?!

Ironman 70.3 Hawaii is in two weeks and I may be doing the entire race on foot.

Traveling cross country with a bike is difficult. That's why "Tri Bike Transport" is awesome: you drop off your bike at a local bike shop, they bring it to the race site, after the race you give it back to them and they bring it home. They charged about $250. I used them for Coeur d'Alene and Wisconsin and it worked out really well. At the time, the airlines were charging about $80-$100 each way to ship a bike, so Tri Bike Transport was a little more expensive but the convenience was SOOOO worth it.

Obviously, bringing a bike to Hawaii would be difficult and Tri Bike Transport is supporting the Hawaii 70.3 race. Perfect. I remember going to their website right after I signed up for the race to make all the arrangements. I've been telling people to use them. Other people have been asking me "did you make a reservation?" and I've kept saying "of course, I took care of it long ago."

Tri Bike Transport is now completely booked, and I can't find any trace of my reservation. I've looked through my credit card history, my email messages, nothing. I decided to retrace my steps. I went to their website, clicked on over to Active.com, and saw the rate: $340. NOW I remember. Several months ago, I went to make a reservation and then said "whoa, that's a lot of money!" I don't mind spending fifty extra dollars for the convenience, but if it's $150 more than the airlines, then I don't mind lugging a bike through the airport. I didn't book it.

Well, it seems that a lot has changed in the past year. Delta is now charging $300 to ship a bike. Each way. I could fly a friend to Hawaii for less than that. (Any takers?)

It looks like I'm switching to Plan B. We are permitted to ship packages from work using our personal credit cards but at the greatly discounted corporate rate. I already have a bike box, so I think I can get my bike to Hawaii in less than a week for maybe $100. I checked the postal service rates, and it should cost about $110 for me to mail it back (up to 3 week delivery, but I'm not as concerned about the return trip. I can use my old bike to start my full Ironman training.)

If nothing else, this will be good practice for Kona in October. Tri Bike Transport is NOT supporting that race, so I have to get my bike there somehow on my own. I just have to lick a lot of stamps to do it.