Last year in November I teamed up with Margie Warrell and we ran this great event together called Live Brave Night Singapore. Margie bought along her special energy and inspired 55 women packed into a very nice wine bar.

It was a fantastic fantastic night and I don't know why I didn't blog about it at the time. I think I had well and truly lost my creative mojo. While 2016 was a pretty rubbish year, 2017 kinda took the cake. We were grateful to be back in Singapore but the job market was tough. After many months of uncertainty, it wasn't until December that I felt more settled and even then I was tired and exhausted and just wanted to be riding my bike in NZ. Friends, you know things are desperate when I'm looking forward to riding a bike!

So I didn't blog about the event but I did make a decision to be brave and do something differently. I decided to enter a triathlon.

Crickets.

And then in high pitched surprised kind of voices "oh wow! That's so inspiring. Good on you" from general friends. Also had someone tell me that lots of big and fat people do triathlons! Ummm...what are you saying? Yes despite me thinking I have a strong body that can potentially do anything with a bit of training and less eating and drinking, apparently the view from the outside is a little different.

"You are going to love it!" From people who do triathlons... Hmmmm I'm not sure I'm going to love it. And people think I'm doing a triathlon because I love swimming, riding and running. I do not. I just like what people's bodies look like when they do triathlons. Fit and strong and golden. I'm doing a triathlon because I want to have a goal to get fit. So I now have:

• a road bike and clip in pedals. The next time you see me I'll have skin missing off one side of my body and a possible concussion.
• a brutally honest swim coach who told me in my first lesson; your breathing is not right, your legs are sinking, your stroke is all wrong and you don't have enough stamina. Apart from that your swimming is good. When I told him I wasn't very good at running, he said it's because I'm too fat!
• An online trainer who in my first week gave the same program I had already been doing. Sigh.

Anyway I blame sorry, attribute Margie for all this ridiculousness because most of us have this voice that tells us we can't do stuff all the time and Margie kinda shook that out of me when we organised the Live Brave Night together. When my goal was just to sell enough tickets to cover costs, she was telling me we would definitely do better than that. And we did! We ended up selling out with a wait list! Which was great and a bit stressful. I came back to my desk at my full time job to find messages on my phone that we had potentially sold more tickets than the venue could safely hold. I hadn't set the ticket limit on the website (because I hadn't imagined we would ever sell that many tickets)! Then there was panicked discussions with Margie about whether we could find a bigger venue but neither of us had time over weeks before the event.

On the live brave night Margie talked about changing that voice in your head and I did that when thinking about doing a triathlon. Other people can do them, why can't I? So I entered one, a sprint distance in Bintan in May. I'm committed now. I booked the accommodation and the ferry and the family are coming to watch. Good to know I'll have extra people to save me if/when I start to drown during the swim leg!

I guess it was my 2018 new year's resolution. The thing that is great about living in Singapore is you get two New Year's! There is the calendar one on the 1st January and then there is Chinese New Year which is this weekend (16-18 February). And the thing that is great about this is you get to re-do your new year's resolutions if they didn't stick after the first New Years!

If you need a push or someone to challenge your thinking this year, Margie is running another live brave event. A whole day event in Singapore! And there is a Chinese New Year discount but you have to get in quick! Like today. Just enter #CNY18 for 30% off the registration. You can do this here.