OK, sorry Patty told me about Google Translator and I couldn’t resist…..
Hello my Raise the Bar friends and teammates. Well another year of triathlon for many of us and what an exciting year it has been. We all have had our struggles and challenges including job changes, job losses, and the tightening of our pocketbooks. For me, it also included selling my company to my partner in May. Not an easy thing to do or anything I wanted to do, but in the end it was the right thing to do. My challenge this year was to stay focused through a loss of identity. Many of us triathletes and Ironman can use those terms to answer part of the question “who am I”. Of course those terms do not describe us fully, but between the work we do, our hobbies, and our families it is a significant part of how we identify ourselves.
Whether it is selling your company, changing jobs, loosing your job, or just challenging times either financially or physically, all of these things can take a toll and moving through these times and beyond can sometimes feel like your doing your own personal Ironman without ever swimming a lap, riding a mile, or running a block.
This year my goal is to finish Ironman Cozumel on November 27t in the 13 hour range. It sounded like fun when I signed up last year (as it always does when you sign up) and with a few setbacks and a few good races thrown in there, I am looking forward to testing the Ironman waters again. Last year, after 2 Ironman’s in 8 weeks I was ready for a break. This season has brought me a few podiums spots, some PR’s, and some good fun. I am still pretty healthy (no signs of the swine flu) except for nagging Achilles tendon on my right foot and the normal MS tingling, numbness, and electrical shocks that invade my body daily. On November 4th, I will celebrate (odd term to use) 5 years of living with this disease and my new “normal” for a body. If you would have told me then that I would be 5 time Ironman in 5 years I would have told you that you must be crazy.
With some good training behind me and ahead of me I dare to start dreaming of the day that has the potential to occur. Paula Newby-Fraser told a group of us a few years back in CDA that “you race the Ironman you trained for”. If you trained for a 12 hour Ironman more then likely you will have a 12 hour Ironman kind of thing. Well, I am hopeful I have trained for a 13 hour Ironman and that my work will pay off this year to officially put me in that category.
This year also brought an opportunity to watch the Ironman World Championship’s last week in Kona. It was oppressively hot there and the athletes were truly amazing. Every single one of them gave me inspiration to swim more efficiently, bike harder, and run faster. You see their faces and you truly wonder what sacrifices they had to give this year in order to be there.
I wrote a blog in 2006 that if you ever had the chance to volunteer in Kona to do it. It is amazing journey and it is amazing day. I re-lived that again this year. Our RTB teammate Matt Hoover was truly an inspiration to perseverance. Moving forward (and just moving) can be the hardest thing when all your body wants to do is stop. Matt proved to everyone at the finish line last Saturday night what is truly possible. That finish chute has to be the most amazing finishes of any endurance sport out there. If you don’t leave crying, wanting more out of life, or being overwhelmed with inspiration, someone should check your pulse.
There are two things I am taking with me to Ironman Cozumel, one, a medical volunteer standing next to us in the stands that night said that they had one lady come in to the medical tent and when they laid her down her feet kept moving like she was running. Can you imagine? And two, an Aussie volunteer yelling at runners “keep running - you won’t die”.
So with that my RTB’s friends and teammates, I want to go hard and I want to keep running – cause I have been told I won’t die if I do.
Seis semanas y contando (Six weeks and counting)
Cheryl
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