Ironman Mont Tremblant 2016 - Ironman #4

Ironman training went really well. I can’t complain at all. I was calm, cool, collected and did what I was supposed to do throughout training. I knew that baring all mechanical issues, weather related stoppages, and full body breakdown that I was going to be an Ironman today and I would do it in about 15 hours – this is a first time that I truly knew this as I went into the race. I was going to be an Ironman today, no questions asked. It is racing that makes me an intolerable, anxiety ridden, crazy person. I was almost in tears several times over the course of the days leading up to the race. I even started race day telling Joe that although I love training and competing, the anxiety I have leading up to it is almost intolerable and I really don’t know if I can keep doing this to myself. I am usually like this all through training but hadn’t been since my coach told me multiple times to “shut up and train.” He’s a great coach but none of us have figured out how to get me over this anxiety yet. So, having not slept much and feeling like I was going to cry, we left our hotel room to do the normal pre-race activities. Nothing exciting here. Joe was my constant supporter – I really don’t know how he deals with me and prepares to race at the same time but time after time, he does it and he does it without question. I married a really good man. The way the waves were set up, he started 12 min before I did. He got into the lake to warm up before I did and almost immediately, U2’s Beautiful Day was played and I saw him stand up, turn directly around to where I was standing and look at me because that is the song that means IRONMAN to us – every year it was played at the start of Ironman Lake Placid until our first year doing the race 2009 (weird, right?). After his warmup, he came out, gave me a kiss and said have fun out there. I was in full breakdown mode at this point so I decided it was time to warm up. I got into the lake and started swimming back and forth, adjusting the swim cap and goggles. I watched Joe’s wave go off – wait did I say I was in full breakdown mode, oh, no, now I was – who knew I could escalate it and I can’t imagine what I looked like to other people. I kept telling myself to just “shut up and race” – this was my motto for the day but I just couldn’t stop it at this moment. I stood up and was just in need of someone I knew to just smile at me. And I looked up and there was Kristen Hislop. I vaguely know her – she coaches people I know and is friends with my friends, we have been introduced before – but in this moment, I needed her to be my friend. I went over to her and she saw the fear. She reassured me that I was ready, I did all the work necessary to get here, and I would be great. In my mind this equated to “suck it up buttercup” and off I went through the arch where they said “You are all going to be Ironmen today.” Cue crying again….. And this is how the swim started – me trying to stay calm and me failing horribly. Once I was in the water, like a light switch, I was fine. The swim started great. I had lots of open water. The first 3 bouys were easy to see and I swam perfectly at them – literally, I was skimming them with my left arm as I went around the inside of them. I was calm. I can literally shut my brain down and stop thinking when I race – it is amazing how I can do it once the rhythm of my swim starts and I just count strokes and sight. Then after buoy 3 the current started to change – no big deal, that is kind of how the 70.3 was too. The farther away from shore you get the more choppy the lake gets, I was mentally prepared for that. And then the waves. I mean WAVES. I swear I was being lifted into the air and then put back into the water. This made sighting and finding a straight line difficult. The kayakers were struggling to stay in a place. They were busy too – this swim was beating people up. I stayed calm though. I knew that I just needed to keep my form and find the next buoy – which seemed to be scattered around and not in a straight line. I would make a beeline to one then try to find the next and it was off to my right. I just kept doing that. I was getting nauseous from motion sickness because it was so rough. Ok, buoy #9. There were 13 buoys, then the turn buoy, then #14 then another turn. Then 13 back… That is a lot of buoys! Around buoy 5 on the way back to shore, I puked due to the motion sickness – there went my banana! Sorry to whoever was swimming behind me. But still calm, stroke, stroke, sight…..getting pummeled by waves. Still pretty open water – this was potentially the best swim from a participant standpoint that I have ever had in that I didn’t get beat up at all during the swim and mostly swam in open water. It was great! That being said, it was so rough wave wise that I went 1:33 – that was not even near the plan. That was 8 min slower than the plan. But I was alive and, from a discipline standpoint, 33% done with the race. AND it wasn’t raining yet…. The run from swim exit to transition is soooo long. It just kept going. Joe and I had a conversation on Saturday about making sure to be prepared out of transition since the weather forecast was really bad. So, I entered transition and found a spot to sit. I ate my honey stinger immediately. I went through my bag and decided I needed my jersey since it was not super warm and humid like they had predicted and we knew we were going to get wet from the “passing showers and thunderstorms”. Arm sleeves, nope – it isn’t that cold out. I don’t want to carry things I do not need. Rain coat, nah, that thing will get me warm when the storms pass and I don’t want to deal with that. Sunscreen – definitely – you don’t want to be stuck out there if it is sunny out…. ALL THE WRONG DECISIONS!!!! 12:53 I left transition disappointed that I was 8 min down from what I had planned already and I wasn’t even close to being done but I let it go and immediately found my comfort zone – I just kept reassessing my effort and saying you’re trying too hard, down shift. I was immediately happy to be on my bike (Ms. Jackson). We had a little conversation about how we were going to be Ironmen today and how excited I was to be taking her to reach that goal. (Yes, I talk to my bike.) I saw Kristen, my adopted spectator who told me I looked good. Then about 5K in, the rain started… It was not only raining but it was raining and it was a cold rain – not in the weather predictions – showers and thunderstorms with high humidity and mid-70s. How about some cold, driving rain. I actually craved climbing hills – at least if I was working on climbing, I was warmer. My feet were numb and my hands were blue. My goal now was to maintain body temperature. At this point I also was having intestinal issues which I promptly ignored since I was in maintain body temp mode and was worried about stopping and not moving and getting too cold. I saw Joe on the out and back and we made sure we knew that we were both ok so that lifted me up a little bit. 1st loop was status quo – me thinking are you riding within yourself, me answering yes. I ate and drank and took salt caps on schedule too – salt caps get pretty gross when exposed to the rain several times during a race. Also, when you can’t feel your fingers you almost dump half of your daily supply of salt caps on the ground when you go to get one. Oh, and did I mention it was raining and cold. Yup, the entire 1st loop. I was trying to convince myself that the clouds were getting lighter, then it would downpour again. The amount of times I told my brain to shut up when it was saying I was too cold was impressive. I finally stopped right before the turn around to go to the bathroom. Well, sometimes you just have do to things (my mantra of the day – thank you Scott Jurek and your book “Eat and Run”.) Ok, back to work. It was still raining. I was still having intestinal issues. I saw Joe on his way back to town and we made sure the other knew we were ok and then head back down and kept going. Then the aid stations ran out of the only food product I needed from them – bananas. Well, that sucks. It is Ironman day and it is all about dealing with what comes your way whether good or bad, so I just needed to handle it. It was now a crazy headwind and raining. But it could be worse at times because in the flats, there was a cross wind – that was just a blast!!! It couldn’t rain the entire 112 miles could it??? No, no it couldn’t. But could it??? I had a good 6 miles at the end of the bike course on the hardest hills on the bike course where it just sprinkled here and there but no downpours and no rain that felt like I was being attacked my needles so there was that. I was so excessively happy to get off the bike. Oh, and there was Kristen again – cheering for me! 7:51.21. Since my fastest Ironman bike before today was an 8:19, this was stellar. Transition: Again, take your time, get your feet a little dry and a little less gritty then get ready. 8:26. I was still having intestinal issues at this point so another porta potty stop had to happen as soon as I left transition. Then I started running. I was comfortable. VERY comfortable. I could run this pace for a while. And I did. I saw Joe within the first 20 min of my run and he and I were both all smiles so I knew he was crushing it and almost done and he knew exactly where I was now. The first loop I wasn’t eating a lot but I was keeping up with salt and drinking Pepsi and chicken broth when it was available – this was the plan, eat scratch when I could and get in all other calories through broth, Pepsi, oranges, and bananas. I had to stop again at an aid station about 3 miles from the turn around since my intestines were not happy still. I could hear the fluids sloshing in my stomach. I thought of Scott Jurek and his book again so I evaluated the issues – sloshing stomach… I had read about a strategy to fix that but I couldn’t think of what that strategy actually was so I decided more salt would fix it, ok, lets drink chicken broth and have a salt cap. Nothing else to do. So I had acknowledged the problem, tried to fix the problem, and moved forward. My knees hurt – ok, nothing is easy about Ironman or as my coach would tell me “You didn’t sign up for an easyman.” Problem acknowledged, nothing can be changed, thus keep running. I saw Joe waiting for me when I was about to turn around and he was happy and excited so I became even more happy and excited. He was even happier when I didn’t have any swear words to say to him about how I felt. I didn’t know how long I could hold this pace but I was trying. At this point I knew that I didn’t have my reach goal of 14:40 but I still had my realistic goal of going sub 15 hrs within reach and I wanted that more than anything. So I run by Joe again and head back out. Still running well until it became dark on the path and the lights came on. Then I got dizzy. Ok, evaluate the problem – I am dizzy. What could be causing the problem – too much caffeine, not enough fuel. Solution – do not drink Pepsi at the next station and eat more scratch chews and some pretzels. Done. More dizzy. Then I realized it wasn’t nutrition at all. It was the shadows moving from the people running and the way the bike path got darker in the woods and the light to dark , light to dark from the lights they had set up. It wasn’t something I could control at all so I decided I needed to move faster but I couldn’t tell how fast I was moving since I couldn’t see my watch. I wasn’t risking falling off the bike path to look. All I knew is that I needed off of this path fast! There was a man I passed who was commenting that he was feeling the same way and that made me feel much better about my situation. I really was happy though with how I wasn’t thinking – I was literally shutting my brain up and just running. Yes, everything hurt. Yes, I wanted to be done. I was starting to see the lights in the sky from the finish and I could barely hear Mike Reilly but I knew he was going to say my name soon. So I just kept running. With 5K left I had 40 min to make my goal. I was going under 15 hours and I knew it, so I just kept running. I had been running from one aid station to the next getting fuel and then running again but at this point I skipped a few because I was going under 15 hours. I got back to town and I just smiled! It was an amazing finish line. I had just hit a goal that I wanted so badly and I did it on a day that was riddled with bad weather and I did it. I heard my name from Joe even though I couldn’t see him with all of the lights. I was done! #4 was done. 14:54.11 with a 5:08.27 marathon to wrap up the day! I haven’t gone sub 5:11 in at least 8 years in a stand-alone marathon let alone during an Ironman. Just wow. Post race – after the race all I wanted to do was see Joe. I made a bee line to leave the finish tent. I found him and we were happy for each other and then I really needed to sit down. I literally left everything I had out there. My legs were throbbing. I was exhausted. Then there were 2 medics speaking French to me and I was like why do they think something is wrong – isn’t this how all Ironmen look when they finish. They were very reluctant to leave me but I assured them I was fine. They assured me that they were there if I decided I needed them – they were like vultures around transition waiting for us to go down. I finally got up, grabbed my transition bags and bike and went back to the room. Our goal was to have me eat real food within the hour of my finish. I took a shower. Then we went out and I actually ate! I was on the verge of the nauseous mess I usually become but once I started eating I was fine. That has been a huge step in my recovery already. Although Joe is disappointed that he doesn’t get his meal and mine when we sit down to eat, I have been able to eat for 2 days and that is a very big deal in post ironman recovery. I still feel horrible body wise – I have a toe that looks pretty like a children’s coloring book and chafing in places I would never have anticipated due to the road grit. But I am a 4 time Ironman and that is all I wanted! These are just small reminders of what I accomplished. It was a horrible, wonderful, amazing day!

Pre-Ironman thoughts and Thank you!

Tonight while watching the Olympics and thinking about my 4th Ironman, I decided to write my thoughts down before the race. This year is different than any other year I have done an Ironman. I am excited. I am ready. I am the smallest and strongest I have ever been before an Ironman. I don't feel mentally exhausted and worried like I have for the other 3 that I have done. I have chosen to let my coach think for me and just follow the plan. I honestly think it has made me a much better athlete. I haven't told many about my goals and I will still keep them to myself but I will tell you that I will be an Ironman again on Aug 21 and that makes me extremely happy. This year I feel like I have a lot of people to thank for my success. My coach who has absolute faith in my abilities and is one of the few people who I will allow to tell me to "shut up and train" when I talk about listening to my brain and thinking I can't do something or having doubts in my ability. He pushed me harder this year "without me realizing what was happening". FYI - I knew it was happening but I let you think for me and I just executed it! If Jamie told me I could do it, I did it even when I was convinced he was trying to kill me. I promise to stay within myself, follow my nutrition plan, and not think too much during the race. My teammates, the funny, dysfunctional group that we are, who supported and cheered me on every step of the way. Steve who made me feel badly when I was considering not doing a workout and thus made me decide it must be done! I really love that you did that for me! Ashlea, Kerrianne, and Wes who trained with me and made training fun whether it be in the lake, on Adirondack hills, or just running around in search of all of the Albany hills. Dave, Mary, Darci, Billy, Colleen, Loring, and Tim who encouraged me to come out for group rides when I was anxious about doing so. Those rides were their easy days and my hard days but yet they encouraged me and included me all the way. Our families who heard the words "we can't" or "we have a long ride/run that day" and just continued to support us - I know that we miss things and you still support us all the way to the finish. We appreciate you and you being supportive of our goals. Lonnie who became my sounding board and would understand what I was going through during training. Lonnie was amazing even after she was injured and couldn't do her own race. She continued to be one of my biggest cheerleaders. I appreciate this more than she will ever know. She helped keep me calm more often than she even knows. And, of course, my #1 fan, my husband, Joe. You are incredible. You have more faith in me than I have in myself most days. You give me tough love and tell me to get out the door and do my workout even when I don't want to. You love my dedication and support me all of the time. You allow me to be crazy and ridiculous all of the time and this makes me happy. I am so excited for what is to come and I can't wait for my 4th Ironman. I plan to enjoy all of the chaos and excitement that it will bring. I promise to give everything I have and make you all proud. Ironman may be an individual sport but it takes a village to get an individual to the start line and through the race. Thank you for all you have done to make this an incredible journey.

Ironman Mont Tremblant 70.3

The week before this race, I was pumped! I kept telling Joe "I'm ready now. Let's race now." I knew if I could hold a nutrition plan together somehow (I have had no success with nutrition during training lately), I would pull off something exciting for myself. I had faith in my abilities in all 3 disciplines and was excited to see what I could do. It was Ms. Jackson's (my bike) first race ever! The day before I felt like I was leaping out of my skin - I was so bored by the inability to be doing something since I was resting the legs after an easy 30 min ride. When race morning hit, I was ready to go. Unfortunately, transition opens at 6 and closed at 7:15 and my wave wasn't until 8:48. So there was a lot of just sitting around and casually eating breakfast - which on a normal day, I would be all over - but today, I wanted to go. Swim - The swim started and I knew this would be the coldest part of my day. The water temp was around 64. The air temp around us had already reached the low 70s by the start so it was going to be a hot one. I embraced the cool water. I found space almost immediately. I was on a perfect line. I was working hard but not outside of my ability level. There was a moment I thought I must have been way off course because no one was around me but I kept passing the bouys on the inside right next to them - one I actually hit with my arm. When I got toward the shore but still pretty far away from the beach, the water got super shallow. I kept swimming but some of the men from the waves behind me were standing up already. I kept sighting and didn't want to have to walk for longer than I had to in the water but finally I got a handful of dirt and decided it was time. I looked at my watch and got really excited 41:09! This is my best swim EVER! That excitement kept me going through the massively long transition run. When I entered transition, the first thing I did was eat a honey stinger waffle and take a salt cap - remember I was trying to have a perfect nutrition day! As I was shoving food in my face, I saw Joe running toward me. His goal was to get out of the water as I was getting out of the water - exactly 8 min faster than I had gone. I yelled "Joe Sullivan, I beat you." He just smiled and nodded. As I was leaving transition, he ran by me and said "I beat you out of transition though!" So obviously my transition times aren't as competitive as my husbands but I put on sunscreen and made sure I ate food so I was happy! The announcer said "And Team Loco is on the course!" I smiled and waved and the crowd got excited! Bike The bike started super fast. Due to the wave structure, I had a lot of 35 to 40 year old men overtaking me, in a very aggressive manner immediately. The first few miles are rolling hills and I wanted to get down a bottle of scratch in the first 45 min so that I could discard the bottle and get a new bottle of water. I wanted to carry as little weight as possible. I was so paranoid about other people passing me and not having their head up to see me and hitting me the entire way out to transition. There was also a moment when I thought - this course is harder than I remember. It kept getting hotter and hotter. At the turn around, I immediately noticed once thing - there was a headwind. How is that possible? I didn't get that much help from this large of a headwind on the way out. So, headwind - I had to mentally handle this one while going up a hill. I literally felt like this was the longest 28 - 36 miles I have ever ridden. Once I got to 36 though it started going faster - there were more people, we were headed toward town. The hills on the Duplessis were really hard - I may need a different rear cassette to get up those twice on Ironman day. Joe keeps telling me that I pushed hard on the bike before I got there so that is why they were harder. Yes, I did go a little outside of my comfort zone on the bike this time around but I wasn't all out. They are just hard. There was a crash on the other side of the road where they were still giving medical attention to the injured. People were coming down on the up side of the road to go around the crash - it was scary in so many ways. The people who were still there and being tended to looked afraid, lost, and confused. I could tell that this was a really bad crash based on the amount of sirens I heard going back and forth and the cars they had trying to get to these people on a 2 lane road while the race was still going on. I was looking for Joe and hoping he made it before this had happened. At this point medical attention was all over this road. It was hot. People were just laying in the bushes waiting for help or being attended to. I kept going - I just wanted off of this road now and off of my bike. To my surprise, I rode a 3:44.50! That is my fastest 56 mile bike split ever! I kept to my nutritional plan exactly and Ms. Jackson and I executed the plan well! T2 was quick - sunscreen, drink water, get shoes on, realize how hot it actually was out, and get out. Run The legs didn't exactly put up a huge fight until about 1k into the race when I had to get up a hill. My stride was too short while running so I walked it - it was more efficient. I was disappointed that this would potentially be my strategy - I wanted to run the whole thing - but my legs said different things at that moment. So the run was very repetitive in my mind - run to the aid station, walk the aid station taking in water, salt every 5K, coke, pouring water over my head, and putting ice down my tri top. Basically remain cool for another few min. There were a ton of aid stations. All they wanted was to make sure we finished. They were cheering "Bravo Kelly!" Just keep moving. I found a new friend Wendy out there and ran with her for a while - this was helpful as we were chatting a little and it distracted me. Then I met Sarah from Montreal - it was her first 70.3 and she had a few questions as we were running. This run hurt. At the end, I was on the verge of puking but I pushed forward. I remembered my coach telling me "You signed up for an Ironman not an Easyman." It was hot. If there wasn't that wind that I hated on the bike on the run course, then this would have been intolerable. I had been promised a margarita and guacamole after I was done with this race and I kept on going for the guacamole! I had anticipated on a good day averaging 31 to 31:30 for each 5K but with the heat I was maintaining 32:25ish. I was happy that I maintained that the entire way. I did walk the big hills and the aid stations but I was on a mission. They changed the course from 2014 and had us go all the way up the village on the cobblestones - that was evil. The run down to the finish from the top was pretty amazing though. "Allez! Allez! Bravo Kelly! Allons-y! Let's go!" I saw Joe just before the finish and he knew I had met my goal of being under 7 hours. There was a woman next to him who was screaming for me in French and I knew she asked something along the lines of "that's good?" and then she started cheering even louder! 2:19.05 - not my best here. I ran a 2:17.16 in 2014 but it wasn't as hot as it was this year. I finished in 6:55.56! I am thrilled that I put that day together on a day that was extremely challenging. Maybe I even found my nutrition plan! After the race, I wasn't completely sick and nauseous as I have been after my training rides so whatever changes I had made in my nutrition worked! I even got to see Lionel Sanders after the race waiting to get his award! I am thrilled with this result. I am a little worried about Ironman here as the course is tough but I still have 7.5 weeks to figure things out and I'm sure my coach will help me do that. I am so happy several members of my team were there with us and enjoyed the experience together.

Some races are better than others!

I took a year off from blogging for so many reasons. I struggled with training and injury. I didn't want to write about it. I went on a trip of a lifetime cross county and wasn't near a computer for almost 2 months! This was amazing. But now I am back! I am training for Ironman Mount Tremblant 70.3 in June and Ironman Mount Tremblant in August! This is going to be an exciting year of training and competing. Since 2014 started, I have been running and competing better than ever. Most races I entered, I PRed. I was on a roll. 2015 I struggled to train and didn't compete well at 70.3 Syracuse but I was prepared for that possibility due to the course and my injuries. We knew that this excellence wasn't going to last forever - you just can't keep getting faster and faster all of the time. I knew it was going to be tough to handle when I finally did have a completely off race. Well, it happened. We signed up for this race a week ago when the weather wasn't cooperating for a marathon Joe had planned to run. I went into the NYCruns Central Park Half Marathon with my 1st solid week of training since December. I knew this wasn't going to be a PR but a nice tempo run for 13.1 miles. We had done some walking but not a lot the day before the race. We ate food that we knew wouldn't bother us. We also were staying in a hotel that every time we were in the room for over an hour, we both felt horrible. My head would hurt. It was so hot that we had to turn on the air conditioner. It was so dry that it felt like I was hungover in the morning. I was taking actions to deal with this by drinking a ton of water but it didn't help. I didn't sleep for 2 nights due to the room, the sirens outside, and the bed that would hold onto heat. Sunday comes along and my legs are not there. I figured it would fix itself as I warmed up. We started up a hill and got to mile 1 - nice effort, it was my warm-up, figured it was about a 10:20 to 10:30 pace based on my effort.... It was 11 min..... What!!!! I had to calm myself down. The people around me were excessively loud and chatty. There were dogs everywhere without a leash - I am afraid of dogs - they were running and barking and growling and all I heard was these really loud people running and dogs. I had to calm down again. Mile 2: I thought was a little better...10:42. This continued the entire race. The people around me were testing my patience too with repeated facetime requests that were not answered, a few that were, and then try those who didn't answer were tried again, over and over again. I tried harder and would get a 10:32 mile. People weren't listening to the volunteers when they told us where to go and were stopping mid stride so I had to cut around them since I knew the course as I had looked at the map prior to the race and was listening to the volunteers. This was reminiscent of the 2011 runner Kelly except that this was my happy race pace and now it was a bust of a day. The best mile I ran was a 10:20. I mentally went from repeating to myself that this had become a long, easy training run to me freaking out that my training wasn't anywhere close to where I thought I was during an Ironman training season. I just needed to see Joe to make sure he was ok and I was doing the math to have an idea of where I should be passed by him. He went by and was fine. That helped a little mentally. The weather was perfect just enjoy the weather I would say to myself. It was a tough, rolling hill course that I should have enjoyed. Sometimes things can't always add up to perfection. This was the slowest half marathon I have done since 2013. That was tough for me. It is still difficult for me - maybe this is what will give me more focus on the training and the goal of a sub 15 hour Ironman. It was one day. I keep reminding myself we knew this was going to happen at some point and today was the day. Better today than Aug 21 during Ironman. After I was done, I sat on a curb and just waited for Joe to run by. I was trying to control my anxiety by texting my "Ironman Training Stress Partner" - Joe said I needed someone who could help me during my mental breakdowns in Ironman training. Joe went by and I felt excited for him at this point. I knew he was at least on pace to run a 2:58 marathon which would qualify him for the 2017 Boston Marathon. 5 more miles to go! Joe rounded the corner so much faster than I anticipated. I looked at the clock and saw a 2:54 and was just in awe of my husband. A day that had a goal of running a 3:04 marathon and he PRed by over a minute. 2:55:43! Just wow. This was everything we had wanted from the day and it happened. How can one be upset by the weekend when one of you has a huge day? I am reflective on the training but super excited for my husband.

2014 in review

2014 started with tons of goals and expectations. I was signed up for my 1st Ironman post cancer. We were headed to our first race outside of the US. I entered the first full year without cancer treatment since 2012. There were high hopes for 2014! 2014 lived up to all of the hype. I became a television star!! Ok, not quite a TV star but I was in a commercial, a print ad, and on a billboard!

A PR in the BAA 5K in April!

Then Joe PRed at the Boston Marathon. Then I PRed in the half marathon as part of the Vermont City Marathon Relay with Joe. We had a great time at the Lake Placid Half marathon. Training with my team! There were highs and lows, laughing, crying, worrying, hard work and determination. We had a lot of fun while training!

Joe and I raced Ironman 70.3 Mont Tremblant in June. This was huge for Joe - he qualified for Ironman 70.3 World Championships and PRed at the race. Mont Tremblant is a beautiful place to visit and race and we can't wait to go back. Then came Ironman Lake Placid. This was the race I waited for ever since February 13, 2012, when I found out my 2012 race wasn't going to happen. This race meant the world to me. All day I had a smile on my face. It wasn't the perfect day - getting pulled from the swim while I was on target to swim the best 2.4 miles of my life, the thunder storm that just followed us for the 1st 30 miles of the bike, and the need to push harder than I had planned on the bike because of the cold rain... But it was a phenomenal day with another PR for the year. I took my finish line back and felt like I was finally back to being me.

We enjoyed some time on vacation together in the sun in celebration of our accomplishment!

We went back to Mont Tremblant in September for Joe to compete in the 70.3 World Championships and saw amazing accomplishments there. What a blast to watch! I loved cheering on my super fast husband in a race most people will never get to race in. Those pros were awesome! The entire experience was fantastic. What a great way to end the summer! The PRs kept coming: 15K at Stockadeathon, 10K at the Troy Turkey Trot, Half marathon at Philly Half! I became obsessed with hot yoga. I have embraced barre classes. I watched my nieces become IronKids. I loved that it was a family affair at the Turkey trot with Sierra and Kaelah doing the kids race, Joe and I doing the 10K, and Lila, my dad, and I ran the 5K together while being cheered on my my mom, Joe, and my sister! I wanted this crazy, athletic, lifestyle back and I went out and took it back! I had a fantastic year. I struggle with the idea that I didn't get to finish the swim at Ironman and, thus, never really did the 2.4 mile swim necessary to be called an Ironman. I did run the extra distance barefoot and survived the elements but I didn't finish the swim... I struggle with the idea of not doing another Ironman this year because of that and because last time I decided to take a year off from Ironman, I didn't get to do that Ironman due to cancer. Although we do have a plan! Rock N Roll Marathon in Washington DC for me in March. Ironman 70.3 Syracuse in June. Hopefully, Ironman 70.3 Princeton in September. Potentially an ultramarathon in October or a marathon in early November. I have found that life is pretty complete with Joe. Here are the year end totals!!! Swim: 128,321 yrds in 54 hrs 46 min Bike: 1,622 miles in 134 hrs 1 min Run: 755 miles in 135 hrs 22 min Racing: 263 miles in 31 hrs 25 min Hot yoga, barre: 37 hrs 36 min That is a pretty solid year! I can only hope that 2015 can hold as much fun and excitement as 2014! The miles along the way will be fun!