We have already seen some tremendous results. My ROM is super, my strength is showing progress and testing proves I can begin dry land running, way ahead of schedule! ;-) Mark pays attention to the details and that makes all the difference! He is amazing and I’m very grateful I have him apart of my support network. I am very optimistic that I will be ready to race Ironman 70.3 World Championships in November.

Obviously, there has been some emotion with this event. Initially, while I was expressing some frustration to a teammate, he made the comment.. “No worries, you just hit a little speed bump in your training, that’s all”. It really put things in perspective for me. I am an athlete, I coach 22 athletes, and I am a mother of three and that in itself can move life at the speed of light. This event has forced me to slow down a bit… and I’ve actually been able to enjoy some time by the pool with my daughters, creating some wonderful memories and having some good laughs… and when we are done, they want to sit on the edge of the deep water pool and watch me water run… and cheer me on. They are really the BEST.

I am just over 14 weeks out to the New York City Marathon, and I finally did it…I completed my first 20 mile training run in prep for the marathon! It has been a LONG time since I last ran 20 miles, so completing this 20 mile training run was a milestone for me…an important turning point in my training and more importantly, a stepping stone towards returning to normalcy from the accident last September. I used to take completing a 20 mile run for granted. When coming back from injury or illness, sometimes setting goals can be discouraging, especially if the return to training is not going well. If they had an award for the most DNS on a race schedule, I would win. As I started this season I tried not to put too much emphasis on performance and racing, but I have been an athlete for so long that taking that approach is difficult for me. So, for 2009, there were only 2 races that really meant something to me.

Earlier this month I ran the Green Lake 12 mile road race in Minnesota…that was race #1 on the schedule. It meant something to me because it is a bit nostalgic. I spent many summers camping, boating and skiing on Green Lake and I remember watching runners in that race when I was much younger. I used to think-who in their right mind would want to run around the lake when it is much easier just to ski around it! I had not been back to that area in 20 years so it was nice to go back there and race…and the win was just the icing on the cake!

The other race I have my mind set on is the New York City Marathon. I am eagerly counting down the weeks, but also trying not to get too excited. I admit, I have a tiny bit of fear about this race-fear of not making it to the start line. However, this fear is being over-ridden with the reason why I am running that marathon. You see, I am not running it just for me. This race has a purpose.

Many are familiar with Jon Blais and the Blazeman Foundation since Jon was featured on the 2005 Hawaii Ironman DVD. Since Jon’s death in 2007, Bob and Mary Ann Blais continue their son’s quest to educate others about ALS and help fund research for this debilitating, deadly disease. A few months ago, Bob and Mary Ann contacted me and I have been given the honor to carry some of Jon Blais’ ashes with me while I run in the New York City Marathon. What better way to motivate me through my training and racing…because I am not just running for myself, but because I need to follow in the footsteps of Jon and ‘fight the great fight’ and finish what I start. His words resonate with me daily when I head out the door to run and I know they will be with me on race day motivating me through every step of those 26.2 miles. Just as Jon liked to end his story with a quote, I’ll end with his words, “Everyone in life has a certain amount of their own adversity. I think that puts the person inside you that makes you challenge yourself to push on to be a better individual.” For Jon…I’ll push on.

To learn more about Jon and the Blazeman Foundation please visit:

http://www.waronals.com/index.php

First off, Blake killed it for the overall win in 3:54, very impressive.

 My goal for Racine was to break 4:10. I’d been putting in some extra hours in Waterloo working on super double top secret triathlon things, and it left me a little tired on race morning, so I wasn’t so confident that I was going to have a great race. I was pretty excited that the run supposedly went through the Racine zoo, with the race flyer promising “Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!”  While expressing my excitement to a friend pre-race, a near by ease dropper chimed in with “The zoo sucks!” I was still hoping to see a Giraffe. Also, I was given the wrong color swim cap, and pre-race announcements said this was going to be a penalty. It took me a shocking amount of time to convince the race director I was not a 40-44 year old woman, so I didn’t get much of a chance to warm up in the water, which didn’t help my cause.

 I had a crap swim. The course was either a hair short and/or there is a current, because I still exited the water in 24 minutes and change.

 Onto the bike, my heart rate was pegged at LT for the first 20 minutes, even though I wasn’t pushing it too hard. I rode through some of the faster swimmers, and within the first 10 miles, and ended up riding with some guy that was riding a pretty comfortable pace up until about mile 35.  All of a sudden, on a long false flat, my legs came alive, so I turned up the heat and smoked 2 or 3 more people before entering T2 in 3^rd place with a 2:14 bike split (2^nd fastest of the day to Blake’s redonkulous 2:09).

 A quick T2 put me out on the run about 100 yards behind 2^nd place, Adam Zucco, who is a stud swimmer and biker, but I had passed on the run at Rockman earlier in the year. My legs immediately felt gooooood, and I moved into 2^nd place within the first mile, still about 8 minutes behind Blake. Other parts of my body weren’t so happy, as even with a super smooth carbon TTX under me, the pavement of the bike course made the ride feel like 2+ hours of getting punched in the taint. The run was pretty uneventful. My best efforts to pull back time on Blake weren’t good enough, and the time gap remained relatively steady for the whole run. I was second across the line, with a run time of 1:22 and a total time of 4:03 (a huge PR for me). I have to thank teammate and coach Eric Bean for milking some speed out of me this year.

 I can also confirm, the zoo did, in fact, suck. Not only did I not see a Giraffe, I didn’t even see the zoo itself.

 Results:

1.  Blake Becker (USA) 3:54:04
2. Jeff Paul (USA) 4:00:58
3. Mike Lavery (USA) 4:03:51
4. Adam Zucco (USA) 4:06:33
5. Jeremy Davis (USA) 4:07:09

The lifetime fitness triathlon is my first triathlon back after my injury this summer. I had a stress fracture in my 4th metatarsal in my right foot which started back on May 26, 2009. For six weeks I was unable to run in order to allow my stress fracture to heal. I purchased a bone stimulator to use twice per day and began physical therapy after two weeks. I began running on an alter G after three weeks. This treadmill allowed me to alter the gravity put on my feet while running. I started at 60% and worked my way up to 100%. I missed a few races due to my stress fracture but was working towards the ability to race the lifetime fitness triathlon.

One week prior to the race I got another X-ray which showed an almost healed stress fracture. I met with my doctor and he advised me that I was allowed to race the Olympic distance triathlon, although if I felt any pain I had to stop running immediately. I knew this was a risk going into the race, although my frustration and impatience took over and I decided to race.

We could not have asked for better weather for race day. Not a cloud in the sky and 75 degrees on race morning. I started the swim in the elite wave of women. With my swimming background I am used to starting the swim out front. Not in this wave, there were four other women that were just as strong of swimmers as I was and we all took off together swimming side by side for at least 400 yards. I got knocked around quite a bit for these 400 yards, at one point my shoulder was even pulled out of the socket. I prefer to swim on my own and over time I found my own water to swim through. The water was clear therefore sighting was not difficult in Lake Nokomis. I lost some time in the start of the swim, but the middle and end were much better. I was the 5th woman out of the water.

My first transition went off without a hitch, on the bike leg I was able to catch two of the women who were ahead of me. The bike course was very technical and had some potholes spread throughout the roads. It was also 41 kilometers rather than the usual 40 for the olympic distance. During my injury I have been able to bike without pain, therefore I increased my bike training over the past six weeks. Just when I was thinking how happy I was with my bike split coming into the final stretch of the course I got passed by another competitor. I finished the bike leg in fourth place.

Heading out to the run I had no idea what to expect, my largest goal was to run the 10K with no pain in my foot. Once I started running I was pleasantly surprised that sure enough I had no pain. But how fast could I go with no run training for six weeks? The first mile was not my fastest as I was concerned about the feeling in my foot. Once I was passed by another woman and put into fifth place I decided to see how much of my speed could be salvaged. After mile one I picked up the pace and at the first 180 degree turn around I saw that there were three more women close behind chasing me down. I held them off for the first loop of the run and began to catch the woman in front of me as her teammate caught me. For the second loop we all remained in our respective places. I kicked it up a notch during the last mile and ran into the finish in fifth place. This finished earned me a qualification to the US Open in October.

Unfortunately I did not have any spectators to take photos, therefore the only race pictures I can share are through the below link…

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=45847&BIB=195&LNSEARCH=1

After the race I met up with my brother and boyfriend who also raced. We spent the remainder of the day exploring the restaurant and bar scene of downtown Minneapolis. We relaxed and put our feet up .

A friend who used to live in Minneapolis recommended a bar called Brit’s Pub which has a large patio including a bocce ball court. Thanks Travis!

My brother Gavin and I at Brit’s Pub

Next we headed to a small jazz club with outdoor seating and enjoyed the music.

My boyfriend Mike and I in downtown Minneapolis

I enjoyed the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon and definitely plan to do it again next year. Most of all I am happy that my stress fracture is healed and I can begin building up run mileage again.

I decided that I would try something new during my mid-season break. One of our local YMCA’s has been running a 1-mile point to point open water swim race for the past 31 years. While I was chatting with friend and teammate, Ian Ray, on Friday afternoon, he informed me that wetsuits are not allowed. This information set me back a little as I clearly do not come from a swimming background and I try to take advantage of any added buoyancy I can get from a wetsuit. Oh well, I figured this would be a great opportunity to try out our new Aquasphere skinsuit.

The suit was fantastic and the race was a blast! I finished in 21:45. I did get my butt kicked by a 14yr old, but I managed to squeak in my first swimming award with a 2nd place age group finish.
Thanks for reading.

Results: