This is Wanaka multisporter Dougal Allan's ambitious reality.
On Monday he received a phone call from Queenstown-based current Adventure Racing World Championship-winning team leader Nathan Fa'avae, saying ''Do you want to go to Brazil tomorrow [Tuesday?''
A member of his team Seagate, Chris Forne, was injured and Fa'avae needed a replacement for the Ecomotion World Series adventure race in Bahia, northeast Brazil, beginning on Sunday .
Allan (28) had a sleepless night, found people to cover his work and fitness training committments, packed his malaria tablets and sunscreen and will fly out tomorrow.
''It's definitely always been my goal in my sport for the past seven or eight years to have the experience of racing with the best in the business,'' he said.
Few could attempt, on such short notice, a race in which they will trek/run, mountain bike, kayak, abseil, use rope skills, swim and do some caving, with a maximum of three hours rest a day. Luckily Allan is feeling ''as fit as I have ever been,'' he said.
''If ever there is a time I can step straight into an event like this, it's now, based on my fitness.''
He has been in top form lately, winning the Rotorua Multisport Festival in June and the inaugural four-day Wenzhou Outdoor Challenge adventure race in China with fellow Wanaka multisporter Braden Currie in April.
Fa'avae said Allan was the first option to join team Seagate, which won the Godzone adventure race in March. The other members are Sophie Hart and Trevor Voyce.
''He's race-ready and keen and has also done the race last year, so he will have had valuable experience, which will help us.''
Allan's team finished second in 2012 but was disqualified for missing a time control, which they claimed to have had but did not.
The experience left him disillusioned then, but going back as a member of team Seagate this year felt like a redemption, he said.
''We will be racing in the event as the world champions.''
