I arrived at LAX on Tuesday.  I had a quick visit with my sister-in-law and one of my advisors for residency and my future sports medicine career.  On Wednesday I then drove down to San Diego where I am staying at a friends house in beautiful Solana Beach.  Team sports shipped my new Orbea bike here and I spent a good chuck on the afternoon building it up and took it for a shake down ride on the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH).  All I have to say is that it is awesome!!  Yesterday, got in a great swim (I love swimming in outdoor pools!) and then headed to Road Runner Sports to help with a training session to teach them about all the great Timex products they sell and provide tech support.  We mainly focused on the Ironman 50 lap sleek with Tap technology as well as the line of awesome heart rate monitors.  We even gave them a sneak preview of the Timex Global Trainer, the all-in-one GPS unit that will be coming out in the fall.

Get excited.  However, most importantly I am lying low today, grazing on PowerBars and getting ready to race Ironman California 70.3 tomorrow! :)  This will be the 4th year I have raced here and will be my first race since being side lined with an injury back in May of 2009.  It has been 10 months since my last race…FAR TOO LONG!  I’m going to go out there and just have fun!  It is always a very competitive race and a huge and talented field always shows up, so I have no expectations…obviously I want to race well, but there is bound to be some rust to shake off.  After my race I am headed back up to LA to hang out with my sister-in-law for a few more days and then back home to North Cackalacky.

As most of you know, I have been on a bit of a running hiatus after 2 knee surgeries and a hip fracture in 2009. Yes, it’s absolutely killing me that I cannot race the XTERRA circuit (the best triathlon series in the world), however, I have been getting my fair share of cross training in the dirt! I have always been in to riding motorcycles on dirt (mostly BMW GS’s) but this past year I got really into racing 250cc dirt bikes on both the track and trails. Before I started riding, I would watch these types of events on TV and question how much effort the guys really put in to it.  Come on, they’re on bikes with motors! I quickly learned that they make it look a heck of a lot easier than it truly is.

Until I finally started getting the hang of it, I honestly thought it was one of the hardest sports in the entire world. Maneuvering a 200lb machine through windy terrain, 180 degree corners, and picking the dang thing up when you dump it, is NOT easy. I was more winded from a 20min ride than I was a 5K run race! After some good skills clinics and a bit more riding, the similarities to mountain biking soon became apparent and I’ve been rockin’ and rollin’ ever since!

A few weekends ago, Bryce (my boyfriend and pro motocross-er) and I headed down to Texas for a weekend of racing. We did a Grand Prix race on Saturday which consisted of 60 minutes of racing on a 3 mile loop of grass track and singletrack. It’s just like a crit on bicycles and you complete as many laps as you can within the allotted time. Great warm up for the big day to follow. Sunday was the 100 mile Enduro race which took over 6hrs. It’s no Ironman (not that I’ve ever done one), but it sure feels like eternity and the moment you know you’re almost done, it’s the greatest feeling in the world as your body is 100% spent!

Bryce and I both had great races and came back in one piece…always a good thing. It’s such a different world than triathlon, but I absolutely love the variety and if it helps my off road cycling skills, what better way to cross train?!?!

As race week is upon some of us and nerves are getting high, I figured I would do some rambling, a stream of consciousness if you will indulge me….

Although most people in the accompanying photo would not believe it, this photo is not from the Tour de France, Tour  Down Under or any other major race.  Instead, it’s from the Saturday Morning Donut Ride in Hermosa Beach, aka- the World Championships.   It’s interesting when you take a step back and take stock of the lives we lead and how serious we take ourselves from time to time.

Last week,  I jumped in this ride just to switch things up and  the way the day unfolded provided an amazing amount of perspective.  From the front, you see guys jockeying for position, squeezing in, sprinting for the line and really putting it all out there- typical Cobra Kai mentality (to be explained at a later time).  Further down the line, enjoying the draft, there were friends chatting and figuring out what coffee spot they were going to hit up later in the day.

As the ride ended,  I put on my runners for an hour of some tempo.  Out on the trail, there were people walking with their kids, jogging with the dog and just enjoying the beautiful day.  About 50 minutes into my run, as the wind kicked up, I started to feel bad for myself.   I was hurting, cramping and did not want to be out there anymore.  Then it happened, twice- I was reminded of how lucky I am and how wonderful life is.

First- a little girl on her pink bike with streamers comes flying next to me and yells  ”You and Me are racing, because we are SOOO FAST and my parents are poopy poop slow.”   I could not help but laugh and get caught up in the joy of racing along with this youngster hot on my heels… it was great.  Then, after the girl and her parents stopped at a snack shop, I started to approach another runner.   As I passed him, I heard a “HOLY COW…DAMN and then got a big thumbs up”.  For me, I was just plodding along, but to him, I was faster than a ringworm breakout in a wrestling match.   It was just the boost I needed.

About 1 minute later, I hear from behind me-  ”AAAH, C’MON,  Let’s GO!!, I’m #1, YEAH YEAH YEAH!!” in the loudest, and somewhat scariest voice I ever heard.  This guy was sprinting full speed and scaring the crap out of the Saturday afternoon beach go’ers.   He caught up to me, gave me a huge smile, a big high give, did the sign of the cross, pointed to the sky and then proceeded to collapse onto the beach in a huge grand gesture of relief.

It was one of those moments that once again reaffirmed that no matter who you are, what you are training for or why you are out there, there is a common bond amongst all of us, a feeling of kinship in working hard, pushing ourselves and simply being out there… it makes us know we are alive… it helps us live.

So, in the words of a man much wiser than me-

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”    What gift do you think he was talking about? The gift of your talent, surely. But perhaps also the gift of opportunity,  the gift of youth, perhaps even the gift of life itself.

I took the opportunity last Friday to put some adventure into my training with a little running race.

 The Mount Kosciuszko run marked the 170th anniversary of when the Polish dude, Strzelecki, named our highest mountain here in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko (or “Mount Kozzi” for us Aussies).  It was an 11km  run from Charlotte Pass Chalet ( another ski village about a 50min drive from where we are living here in Thredbo) to the top, at 2228m. Fun fun. (Stu wants me to change these amounts to miles and feet but I think you guys should work it out :))  [ed - 11km=6.8miles; 2228m=7,310ft]

Since training  has consisted of LOTS of rehab exercises lately and a VERY gradual return to increasing the km’s, after being knocked about by a couple of back to back viruses, Stuey and I thought this would cheer up my training routine. Why not hey,  the weather has been sunny, warm and hardly any breeze…..till race day!

We  woke to cold, gale force winds and grey clouds- boo!  I was wanting to show off my new Timex gear, but seeing that was going to be no where near enough clothing I had to layer up underneath with thermals and the like.  Gloves, beanie and wind jacket also in-situ.  I don’t like cold much.

We arrived to race start with a Polish TV crew running around wanting interviews,” yay … I’m gonna be on Polish TV”, and then the introduction of two competitors who had won a swag of Olympic gold medals in walking that were also running.  Wow, a big event, ha ha, a mass total of about 25 competitors- shhhhh.

Stuey headed off on mountain bike to the top of Kozzi to cheer me on and have MORE clothes for me when I finished.  Well nearly to the top, bikers have to park their bikes and walk the last 2km to the top.  I did my best before race start to stay warm and get limber…bit hard when a freezing 60km/hr (37mph) wind is whipping past.

So, the race, well if you could call it that.  I found at this altitude, on gravel and up hill continuously with the first and last 2km’s extremely steep and with a gale in my face, I could only go SLOW . It was such a weird feeling to be at normal Ironman pace HR but a speed 1-2mins/km slower.  It was like watching life in slow motion.

One section,on pretty choppy gravel with a howling headwind, I swear I was running up and down on the spot. Oh how much I wanted to walk but my one goal was not to, even if it could have been faster :)

I actually felt better as the race went on, got into a SLOW, steady pace and enjoyed passing all the tourists that were walking the mountain- I was pretending they were my competitors.  I even had an inner chuckle, laughing outwardly used way too much oxygen, when a couple of school kids decided to race me for 100m or so, off they flew, only to end up bent over huffing and puffing as I ran back past them. Little smart ass teenage boys.

It was really satisfying to round the last steep bend to the top, it was actually quite hard going, and I must admit to feeling a bit nauseous.  Stuey was there to greet me, clothe me and give me a big congratulatory hug for 2nd place female, yay.  By the way the sun came out and it wasnt too cold during the race, but my layers served me well, as did my Timex Global Trainer –  its debut race (not sure if I’ll save that average speed though!)

The Polish were singing their National anthem at the top, waving the Aussie and Polish flags and generally enjoying the moment.  What a great little event.  But, it wasnt over yet…..we  had to get back down. Thanks to Stuey and his mountain bike efforts I got to free wheel back to the start  as he had his downhill running exercise for the day (I made him go fast too :)).

So I received  an unexpected lovely commemorative medal from the Polish Consul General (in a suit!!), a big block of Toblerone (yummy swiss chocci) and some pocket money for my efforts.  Gotta love a Kozzi mountain run; hope its on next year!

On Saturday, March 13, I had the opportunity to run the Bentonville Half Marathon in Bentonville, Arkansas.  Bentonville, you ask???  You bet — the home of world business giant, WalMart! 

As a person who respects goals & achievement – and, as a “former” business person – I have followed the unbelievable success of WalMart for over 20 years (since I first bought stock in the company).  But, to see and learn about the company’s impact on this tiny Arkansas town firsthand was totally worth the trip.  Bentonville, itself, had a population of just 34,000 people, according to the 2007 US Census.  WalMart employs 14,000 in their World HQ in the town.  Rush hour was crazy!

According to Michael Pecoraro, Timex’ Lead Sales guy on the WalMart account, there are literally thousands of offices in the greater Bentonville area staffed with dedicated sales teams for WalMart.  It is estimated that Procter & Gamble employs 300 people in their WalMart dedicated office alone!   I read one story that described the area this way: “Bentonville looks like a Las Vegas-style hotel metropolis.”  There are so many business visitors calling upon WalMart that there are, indeed, an incredible number of hotels for such a small city.

OK, last comment on the company – for you/us athletes: the fitness center in the WalMrt HQ has an olympic-sized 50-meter pool, a basketball court, every piece of fitness equipment imaginable, several locker rooms … and, my buddy who works there pays $15 per month for access.  Pretty, pretty cool.

But, alas, my main reason for the visit was to attend & race the Inaugural Bentonville Half Marathon as a proud member of the Timex Multisport Team.  Timex was a Major Sponsor for the race; and, being in WalMart land, increasing Timex’ presence and exposure was a goal.  I think we did pretty well.  The highlight of the exposure was a TV interview with myself and my good friend, Gordon Haller, the very first Ironman Champion (1978).   You can read about and watch the short piece at http://www.kfsm.com/news/kfsm-nwa-half-marathon-athletes,0,6073300.story.

As for the race, my camp roommate and teammate, Adam Wilk, also traveled in for the event.  We continued our extremely divergent political discussions begun at camp (Adam is a pure-bred Texan … I’m a proud “Kennedy Democrat” living in Boulder … you can fill in the blanks); and, had fun helping out at the Timex booth on Friday, and racing on Saturday.  Gordon joined us at the booth on Friday, as well as speaking at the pre-race pasta dinner in the evening.  I’ve known Gordon for 15 years, and he now works at WalMart – it worked out beautifully for all of us.

The day was cold (36 degrees), breezy, and damp … less than perfect conditions for the 1,400+ runners.  The course was wonderfully designed by Mike Rush, owner of Rush Running, and a former Arkansas Razorback running phenom.  Only a true runner would put a major downhill at 9 miles, and a serious uphill at 12 miles!  My Timex Global Trainer worked to perfection, giving me precise splits at each mile – with heart rate – but, to be honest, it was a bummer to watch my consistent high 6, low 7 minute pace drop dramatically in the final 2 miles.  No biggie – it was a blast.

I was able to to pull off a 1:35, win my age group, and receive a great award: a brand new Timex watch :).  I took the opportunity to give the watch to the day’s youngest competitor, age 11, as he did not win anything, being in the 19 & under category.  He was thrilled, and the crowd loved it.  Adam also did very well; but, did not have the “advantage” of being in the “grand masters” category.

Great race, amazing town, wonderful people … proud to represent & be part of the Timex Multisport Team!