Wings to Fly

I confided with a friend of mine the other day of my anxiety going into 2014 and the goal of taking on the challenge of completing my first Ironman, Ironman Boulder, August 3, 2014.  Her candid reply:  "its just a thing." I know she didn't mean much deeper than those words and in truth, it is just a thing.  For me, the race itself will hopefully be about 12 hours of my life... 1 day in the grand scheme of things.  My goal for the race specifically is not to qualify for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii - if I wanted to do that, I certainly would not have picked a location like Boulder where the best triathletes, pros, former pro's, want to be pro's, and top age groupers, flock to live and train.  My goal for the race day is to stay calm in the water, not panic as I enter with a couple thousand other athletes, ride strong on the bike, and take in the run and all the beauty that makes Boulder an athete's paradise... and of course, do the best I can do ...

A cabin nestled in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia.  A retreat.  A life that I have always treasured where I can be myself, wear old sweats, hair in a ponytail, trail running shoes, yet never feel out of place.  A place where my heart just reaches out and connects with God, where I can test my very core of strength and perseverence with each run or mountain I climb.  A place of the happiest memories of connecting with my husband, faithful dog Tucker, and sweet adventurous daughter, Hailey.  A place of dreams to come - a wish that our children will grow up here laughing, sharing secrets, building forts for Barbie dolls, hunting for sticks to create a campfire, and long hikes to distant fire towers. Our cabin has been all that to me and so much more.  It is not a mere house in the woods, made of wood and stone, a rental property or weekend escape.  For me, it makes me who I am.  Sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, I dream of being a...

For years I have said I am a runner, but not a marathoner.  I love running.  It is part of my very being, but marathons?  Not me!  I ran one 13 years ago, The Flying Pig Marathon, in Cincinnati, OH - and vowed to not revisit that again.  It was painful, I was injured, and mile 20-26.2, the "final 10K" felt more like a death march, weaving side to side, slowing from a 7 min/mile pace to a 9:45 min/mile pace.  It wasn't pretty.  I went into it injured after training with a coach who had me running 60-70 mile/weeks, did not know the first thing about nutrition, taking only half a Gu the entire race, and barely drinking water (my silly fear was that I was going to have to stop to use the port-a-potty, forget dehydration and bonking!), and as a result, didn't run for almost 2 months following that day. Fast forward 13 years to now.  I signed up for the Snickers Marathon in Albany, GA last fall after peer pressure got the better of me. ...

Cheesy title, huh?  I must say, I couldn't agree more.  I have been wanting to write about our trip up to Chicago for the F.A.S.T. (Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics) Gala, the Santa Hustle 5K and the Scientific Advisory Panel meeting we participated in the weekend of December 1, 2012, but have been struggling though amazing post Gala/race highs - and the crashing lows - that follow highly anticipated, memorable events such as these. Gino's East Pizza & Beer! I joke that the race is the easy part for me.  Getting to the starting line, well, that is the toughest challenge.  This trip to Chicago was no exception to that.  I will skip on the details because I don't want to clutter the post with jumbled words and thoughts, but lets just say I somehow made it through security at the airport (including taking off shoes, belt, etc. to go through the metal detector), a 2 hour airplane ride, an adventure on the L (Chicago's rail system), walking up...

You can't fly if you don't believe in the strength of your wings." -Stephanie Henshaw Thoughts on the Eve of a New Year... My wonderfully dear, inspiring friend and fellow Angel mom, Candy Granger-Underhill, posted this quote on her Facebook wall.  I couldn't help but think of how perfect the words were for our lives, she in the mountains of Colorado and me here in Georgia.  Candy, mom to angel Sam, a little Angel the same age as Hayden, ran her 1st 50K to raise money and awareness for Miles for Smiles in 2011. For 2013, she is steppimg up her challenge and is pushing herself to compete in a 50 mile endurance race, Little Big Horn 50 mile in Idaho, this coming June. Candy is amazing.  Not only is she an incredible athlete, she is raising Sam, age 4, his beautiful big sister, Reece, and gave birth to a precious baby girl last May, just weeks before directing the Mountain to Valley 10 mile, F.A.S.T. 4 mile and Smiling Sam Kids Fun Run in...

The run course of Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Vegas is designed to physically and mentally break even the toughest athletes down, not to mention running it during the middle of the day when the air temperature is reporting 110 makes it practically ridiculous.  There is no telling how hot it is actually on the black asphalt on a course that has a total of about 10 feet of shade along it.  1/3 of the professional athletes racing ended up dropping out of the race by the time they encountered the run that day. The course is 3 loops.  Racers come out of transition and run downhill for a little over a mile, around a cone, then uphill for over 2 miles, around a cone and back down.  To make it more fun, you get to pass, literally, about 10 feet from the finish line, see the croud, hear the announcer calling out finishers, vere to the left and climb a little nasty extra hill around a pavillion and start the trek over again. I came out of transition flying, perhaps it...

I quickly made my way to my bike, passing a handful of people in transition (I am a firm believer that transition seconds are freebies.  Races are truly won and lost in transition).  I opted to run my bike out of transition, up a carpeted zig-zag hill and out on to the road where we were allowed to mount and begin riding with my bike shoes on my feet rather than strapping them to the pedals and running barefoot to the mounting line.  Before my start, I had watched a handful of pros attempt the bike run up that zig zag hill and because of the steepness of the grade, ended up kicking off a bike shoe that was attached to their pedal, causing them to have to stop and run after it.  It was not worth the risk to me, plus, at that distance event, I wanted to wear socks for the bike and run. As I hopped on my bike and headed up the first half mile incline out of the resort, something was not sounding right on my bike.  It was like a metal rubbing sound ...