Finisher But Never Finished...

Isn't this shirt sweet? I saw the (re)vici booth at the Beach2Battleship race expo and knew that these guys were pumping out some sweet products. When I spoke with the master minds behind this company I realized right away that they "get it." Cool gear that people want to wear beyond race day or  race weekend..this is something that I'm focused on doing with Rock CF and the Rock CF Rivers races.

When I first eyed the Finisher But Never Finished shirts the phrase immediately resonated with me.   I of course had to get one of these shirts and ended up with the dark charcoal gray color that I wore the day after I Finished the big race.

Even though I bought it before I actually finished my first half iron distance, that didn't matter. Having finished 7 half marathons, tons of other 5k's & 10k's, 300+ mile bike rides from Detroit to Chicago or D.C. to Pittsburgh, all of these allowed me the right to wear this, right?...BUT  Finisher But Never Finished goes beyond the road I run on or the bike journeys I take. It summarizes my whole life, and really anyone else who lives with a chronic or illness. We fight battles large and small, come out on top and cross that finish line (sometimes crawling through), but there will always be more fighting. We go into the hospital to treat lung infections, have surgeries or procedures, and we come out a finisher...but we are not finished.

There will be a day when we are all Finished (thank you Blue Lightning for helping to give my expiration date a little boost) but until then we all will continue to be Finishers in our everyday battles!

I suggest you head over to read about this awesome company..and maybe pick up a shirt or two!

Em

Thank You's and the funniest story of the week

It hit me at 6am the day after the race as I hobbled into the bathroom..I did it! I didn't just do it though, I raced it. The soreness in the legs and the bruised up toes showed me that I poured out all I had in me during the race. Also I realized that I pushed myself for 5 hours and 45 minutes straight with no rest, eating just enough to fuel my body. When I think about this it becomes real...and I become so excited for the next one!

I have so many people to thank for getting me through training, and the race.

All of my fam for all the encouragement during training and for keeping up with my training. Baby K for being the best cheerleader ever. My training friends who rode and ran with me..Armstrong, Jess, John, Sarah and all the GP runners. Steph and Reebs for feeding me and for helping me fulfill my fro-yo needs.

Sage Rountree for offering me nutrition advise early on in my 13 week program. Her advice changed my whole way of thinking when it comes to nutrition before, during and after training/racing. I swear it was the best advice I've gotten in a long long time.

EPIC Powersports! My buddy Matt from Epic hooked me up with all my Hammer nutrition for training and the race. The Latte Perpetuem was the bomb but I especially love the chocolate Recoverite! I swear that stuff is why I was ready to drink beer and freestyle walk after I finished the race! All of my Michigan friends who ride make sure you check these guys out if you're up in the Traverse City area.

PPD- Ned, Lee, Elizabeth, David, Wendy, Maryssa, Jessica, Kara and everyone who works there. You guys are the absolute nicest and genuine people and I am so proud to be a part of your team!

Here is a highlight from the whole experience:

After the race we hung for a while and then when back to the hotel to shower and rest for a few. We headed back downtown for dinner around 6pm. When we got out of the car a group of parents who had kids running came up and stopped me. They saw my speech at the athlete's dinner and wanted to chat and ask me how I did in the race. Super cool to meet them! This happened a few more times around town during the night.

The BEST was this though...We were standing near the finish where some people were crossing the line and others were making the turn for their final 13.1 (a sad place to watch btw..yikes). 2 drunk suburban ladies in their 50's walk past and I mess with them a little bit and ask if they're going to run next year. One of them stops and turns and says, "I need to ask you something...." This always makes me nervous.. "Did I see you on TV yesterday?" We laugh and say yes. Her girlfriend  says "Shut the F*** up! You can't see.." The less drunk one says "I've been staring at the ground for 2 weeks. I had detached retina surgery..but I remember seeing you."  The other lady continued on and the drunk(er) one again says "shut the f*** up!" When she said this it wasn't in excitement, no, she was staring at me weirdly and in disbelief. Again the back and forth about "You can't see.." "Yes I can, it is you!"....when they finally left we were dying! Totally made the whole trip!

Check the Rock CF site for the news clips...www.LetsRockCF.org

PPD Beach2Battleship Race Recap

PPD Beach to Battleship Half Iron Distance Triathlon Recap

6:18.48...blew my goal out of the water!

     WOW! Training really paid off big time...I'm still so amped up right now about the race and will try and do a decent race recap here. So much happened during the race and especially in the days leading up to the event. A huge pep rally at PPD to meet my amazing fellow Heroes and Team PPD, speaking at the official athlete's dinner, visiting the local cancer centers and being on the news 4 or so times on 4 different channels. It was craZZY!

Here is the race recap..I broke it into sections to make it easier to read.

Pre Race/T1

I actually slept really well Friday night before the race which was awesome. At 4:55am I got a text from my amazing swimming partner Scott asking what our bib number was. He wanted locate my bike so he knew where he was heading after his swim for T1. He is in charge of T1 for the race anyway so he was there at 3am already. At 5:05 I popped up and hit the lobby for a surprisingly piping hot fresh cup of coffee. A whole wheat bagel with almond butter and a banana was washed down with some chocolate coconut water and my morning routine of the vest and Pulmozyme. When my routine finished I grabbed all my stuff and headed to meet Willie (an amazing PPD Hero) and his wife for a ride to the start. I had a cool 3 chilly hours until Scott would come out of the water and send me on my way. Luckily I ran into an old friend who I went to high school with who was swimming in the full relay, rather quickly I may add. I also got to chat with my buddy Keith who came up from Florida to race the 1/2 and then hung with all the PPD peeps as we awaited our fish to arrive. A quick ride on the foam roller that I brought and then some stretching and I was ready to get this thing started! 27minutes and 53 seconds after the start of the Relay teams swim, my buddy Scott came darting into T1 screaming my name. I screamed back and in a snap he had that timing strap around my left ankle, I pulled my bike off the rack and hauled ass to the Exit. My Cat Eye odometer sensor on my wheel was knocking as I was running my bike but a great bike mechanic volunteer fixed it in seconds and I was on my way!! Talk about adrenaline! Geeze!!

T1 Transition time: 3.35

PPD B2B Bike

Bike

3:17.41

 (I now need a tri bike!)

       I owe my speedy bike time (speedy for me) to my dad. Two days before the race I had my bike tuned up at a cool shop in Wilmington. As we were unloading it to T1 on Friday he noticed that my back tire wasn't spinning all that well. Turns out the brake was very tight. I wouldn't have caught that so I'm super thankful he did. We aren't sure if it was like that for all of my 13 weeks of training ;/ or if it happened at the shop. Luckily the bike guy at T1 put it on the stand and loosened it right up. 

     The bike course was awesome! To get out of the Wrightsville Beach area we had to loop around and cross a bridge. Once we crossed the bridge we took a right and were on a long straight stretch for quite a while. That first stretch was something I wasn't expecting. My legs definitely were overwhelmed at first by my body and minds excitement to race. It took them about 5 miles to really get going. Thankfully there were awesome crowds of people in the first few miles who screamed "Go PPD!!" Some even realized that it was me riding past and giving them a thumbs up,  and they screamed my name...now how cool is that? How'd they know it was me? Well my ugly mug was on posters all over the PPD offices and at the race expo. Those cheers really got me through those first few miles and in the right mindset to get rocking. My speeds were crazy! 18-20 mph was what my computer was showing and I wasn't mashing at all. Either the wind was at my back or indeed I had been training for weeks with some tight break resistance. Hey, I'm blonde....

     About 5 miles in David, who is the CEO of PPD and incredible guy came riding past me. We had some laughs and then he said he was feeling good and busted out ahead. Pretty cool! At about mile 15 I hear a loud voice scream "chuuummp"  and I knew who it was right away, Eric and Garrett, my wild PPD heroes who ride as a father son tandem. *Read about their amazing story here!* As they wizzed by me we trash talked for a bit and then I saw them at the first aid station.  When I pulled off, a lady asked how I was and then helped me fill my bottle with water. She was just so cool and it was magical how quickly she got me squared away. That volunteer made my day! 

     I was back on the road in a jiffy and cruising at an average of 17.7 mph. People were still yelling "go PPD" and there were again a few "Go Emily's" scattered about too. The coolest was when other riders would cruise by and say "go girl" or give some other encouragements. My favorite was the guy who roared by me but had enough time to yell "I know who you are! You are the poster girrl!! Go!!!!" So cool. I was able to talk Tigers with a few guys, tell someone about cystic fibrosis and also explain what PPD does. A long stretch of the course cruised along Interstate 40...have you ever biked a race on an interstate? It was sweet..and fast! We had a few viaducts to cruise over but I gotta say again, this new "resistance" training paid off. I told myself at each little uphill I came to was like my tune ups in the hospital.  The start of the climbs were when I was sick and going into the hospital. As I cruised up the hill that is when I was on the up and up and the meds were kicking in. When I got to the top it was when I was at my best. And cruising downhill was when I was discharged. This little mind trick worked and I buzzed up the hills!

     My nutrition plan was spot on. I drank 1 full bottle of water every hour, my bottle of Perpetuem over the 3 hours and took in some Heed too. A Hammer Gel at hour 1 & 3, and my PB+J Bonk Bar at 2 hours. 2 Salt Stick caps every hour and 4 enzymes twice on the ride. Because my ride was at least 30 minutes faster than I was planning I didn't need that extra gel on the bike which was cool. 

     I gotta say that I am still excited about the double hand off I made at the last aid station. One girl had 2 bottles in her hand. She handed 1 to the guy right in front of me and then I said to here "'let's go for 2!" So she stuck that hand out with that bottle and I snatched it on my way by. We both laughed and cheered but it wasn't over there though. Right after her I spotted a girl holding gels. We made a seamless handoff and I was now the proud owner of 2 gels that would go into my jersey and get me through the run. Nothing like going 2 for 2 at a station! The best part was the bottle of water had a big hole in it. So every time I squeezed it to take a drink I got drenched..luckily it was hot and I could really appreciate the bath.

     I kept looking at my time and started doing math. "Am I really going to finish around 3hrs15? There must be some fierce headwinds that we are going to turn into." When a cool local racer told me that we were in the headwinds already, that's when I knew I was smoking the bike. I was SO geeked but then nervous...I told my mom, dad and the PPD peeps I would be in T2 30 minutes after my new arrival time!

     As I powered up the last bridge, slowly at this point (mile 55.5'ish) I was ready to be off the bike and in my running shoes. Magically that moment happened and I cruised into the chute to loud screams from my family and PPD friends..they didn't miss me!! This race has the only indoor transition area which was great. I handed my bike to a volunteer, hobbled to my T2 bag, changed shoes, peed (Real bathrooms!!) and put on my Rock CF hat and race number and hit the road. 

T2 Transition 4:14

PPD B2B- Run

Run

2:25.27

     As I came back out the shoot I saw my mom, dad and friends and they were going wild. One of them started running next to me screaming my name. They said I looked great when I ran by them...looks are deceiving because my legs did not know what the hell to do haha. 

     The chute brings you onto the boardwalk along the Cape Fear river. As I tried to figure out what I was doing a nice lady ran up beside me, put her hand on my back and said "I work with a lot of CF kids..." and then she said some more nice things that were just what I needed to hear. At this point I didn't feel like I was moving at all, my mouth was SO dry, my lungs were trying to figure things out and I had some doubts. About a 1/2 mile in though I came to another team of PPD peeps who went crazy when they saw me. The pic below is from that moment and honestly I'm surprised because it looks like I am actually running! It sure as hell felt like I was shuffling with 2 bricks attached to my feet.  Let's talk about feet right now though...apparently I didn't tie my shoes tight enough because now I am the proud owner of bilateral pointer toe bloody bruises that will soon be losing their nails. Yay life! But hey, if that's what hurts the most after all this I'm ok with it!

Back to the race....I got some quick high fives, a water and an orange which I quickly spit out. It looked better on the table than in my mouth. 

     This crew gave me the encouragement that I needed to get going. That is until that damn hill that you have to go up to get out of town. It was a quick steep one about 3/4-1mile in so I decided to walk up it, along with every other person in front and behind me. From that point on though I didn't walk during the 13.1 once (except through each aid station). 

     As I plugged along the first 2 miles the temps really got to me. My mouth was still super dry and I felt so damn hot. Out of nowhere a voice from behind says "Emily! Do you need some water?" Sure enough a guy on a bike pulls up next to me with a bottle of water. Really? Was this a dream? I drank as much as I could, he wished me luck and then I thanked him 1,000 times. 

     The first 4 miles of the run were the toughest for me. Once I got past 4 my lungs relaxed, my legs were back and I was on it; popping salt tabs, gelling up a couple times, and drinking water, Heed or cola at each station. 

     The best part of the run was seeing all 5 of the other PPD Hereos. Mary was the first to fly past me. She was the running portion of a 1/2 relay team and is in some kick your ass shape. I got a good chest bump from Eric and Garrett and then I saw my buddy Willie at a turn. Other Team PPD peeps were all over the course so that was fun to see them and share some encouraging words, like these from Lee as he stormed past "Rock Cffffff!!!" These are what got me through this hot hot run. The miles between 6-10 were great with more encouraging words from fellow runners. One guy even ran up behind me saying "Hey! You got any of those blue pills???" He must have seen my PPD speech on Thursday...referring to Blue Lightning, aka Kalydeco.

     At mile 10.5 I caught up with Katie (who also has CF, is a PPD Hero, kicks ass, and did the run portion of the 1/2). She was hacking a little and we were both not loving the heat so we decided to bring it home together. We joked and laughed until we came to the best moment of the entire race. In front of us was her brother and dad at a bar around mile 11.5, with......BEER!!! Her brother handed a frothy ale to her and at the same time we both yelled "We can't share!!!" (CF patients have to be careful with cross contamination issues) In the blink of an eye her dad had a stout in my hands and we both took giant swigs. Holy cow, that was heaven in my mouth and we are convinced that is what got us to the finish!

     We got through the last longest mile of our lives and headed down that same damn hill I walked up in the beginning. The PPD crew was in the same spot screaming as we went by. When we got even closer to the finish Scott was there waiting...he said "let's do this together"...so yeah, that was amazing! Scott and I joined hands and the 3 of us with cystic fibrosis headed toward the finish line, kind of hearing the announcer say our names and that we were PPD Heroes, we ran across the finish line together with our arms held high!!!! My mom, dad, our friends from Florida, the other heroes families and more PPD crew was at the finish yelling for us. It was AMAZING!

Scott and I hugged it out and I thanked him for a lightning (not blue) fast swim. David from PPD was at the finish line and presented us with our medals BLING! Such an incredible feeling.

 (Katie and me)

I felt better after this race than any 4 hour ride or long run I did during the 13 weeks of training. Sticking to my nutrition guide (thank you Sage Rountree!!) was definitely the key to success. 

At the finish  I refueled with my Recoverite that my mama and pops did up for me and then I just soaked it all in. Amazing amazing amazing...amazing.

A sports reporter for the Star News paper was waiting for me at the finish. He'd spoken with my parents already and also to Scott who has a story that I still can't believe. You can read the article

Cystic fibrosis, love of fitness bring competitors together for B2B here.

     This was by far the most challenging experience of my life and I still can't believe I completed it especially finishing 30 minutes faster than my goal time. I could go on for hours and days about everything that happened during the whole thing. The awareness for cystic fibrosis and for clinical trials was really highlighted this week. I cannot thank the team at PPD enough for this opportunity. The energy that the team of Heroes brought to Wilmington is still blowing my mind. I think we need a reality show...

     

     Stay tuned for more pics of the race, the events, the news coverage and some hilarious stories that happened after the race!

When's the next race??

The Final Countdown!

It is officially Race Week!!!

Tomorrow my mom, pops and I will be hitting the road southeast toward Wilmington, North Carolina. I have 3 bags packed already, one for my speaking outfits, one for my bike and run gear, 1 for snacks and nebulizers..actually add 1 more, my vest! It ain't easy to travel light when you have CF.

We will drive a while tomorrow, spend the night and then head into the Wil Wednesday a.m. In the early afternoon I have a meeting with the PPD heroes and crew to go through a dress rehearsal for Thursday's Hero Awards. After the rehearsal I gotta bust over to Bike Cycles to get my bike tuned up and pick up some last minute gear.

Big week ahead!!

My folks picked up their first smart phones yesterday, the Galaxy 3's...It's a really nice phone and their commercials make me want one, even though I'm an iPhoner. The plan is for me to hold tutoring sessions from the backseat during the drive down. This should be pretty interesting..maybe even worth recording. All I need for them to be able to do on Saturday is to take pictures and video and be able to share those via text and perhaps Facebook... let's cross our fingers! I am confident that they can master this.

How many of you have had your parents join the smart world?Perhaps I will write a book about my experiences with this, no not the iron man, but "Guiding Your Parents into the New World of Technology." Step 1:Have a bottle of whiskey on hand... Step 2: Drink it..together.

Next stop Wilmington!

Hitting the Clinic

This morning I got a call from my mini me/3 year old niece K who said that she is now a doctor. Interesting...In case you didn't already know,  she told me recently that she has 3 grandchildren. She basically puts Doogie Howser to shame. A 3 year old doctor with 3 grand kids..Sorry NPH!

So when she told me she was a doctor I asked if she could help me with my foot. She responded with  "I am at the clinic..." Hmm I thought; she isn't allowed to hang out with Lindsey Lohan anymore and I know she's clean, but why the clinic?  "The clinic is at my house." Oh she calls the doctors office the clinic...better keep an eye on who she is hanging out with and watching on TV...

She instructed that I must take a shower, brush my teeth and hurry there quickly. What would she be doing when I got to the clinic? Look in my ears, put a hammer in my mouth and the make me say "ahhhh" and then throw that away. Interesting.

After explaining how this process would work, she asked if I like apple juice. Of course I do! She told me that when I get to the clinic there is some apple juice in the fridge, so just open it up and have some. That would definitely fix me. She finished the conversation with another, "hurry up and get here, and come quickly!"

Just before getting this phone call from my new doctor, I began receiving picture messages of the youngest Rock CF star, my other niece LoLo. She was wearing that red Rock CF shirt that K wore when she was a little thing. Matching the shirt were some red and white striped pants, cute ass grin and sticky outty hair..why....!??

How do you say no to these things! My new clinic, my new doctor and my baby Rock CF'er are 3 hours away...I was so tempted to just drop what I was doing (packing for the IRONMAN!), get in my car and drive there.

After this race I need to see these nuggets!

Pink! Even the stoner kid is aware..

Whoa...October.

So we ALL know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Pink ribbons are everywhere, plastered on cereal boxes, soup cans, Kitchen Aids,  NFL football players and refs wear pink jockstraps, pizza boxes are pink...the list is endless. It truly is amazing the support that this cause gets, in the awareness side and the fundraising side.

I am definitely not going to get into my views about the whole thing regarding funding and research. I don't consider myself knowledgable enough about it all so I won't bother, but I do have some strong feelings about some issues. BUT if you have time track down Pink Ribbon, Inc. and give it a watch....(You can stream it on Netflix)

What I am going to say today is, damn, they truly have succeeded in one thing...AWARENESS! Everyone knows and is talking about breast cancer. Everyone.

Around lunchtime I snuck out for a short 3 mile run and on my way back I crossed paths with a stoner kid on a skateboard who was clearly skipping school.  With his fist thrust in the air he yelled to me "Whoooo, keep it up! Yeaaah! Let's cure breast cancer!" Baffled I couldn't respond and I just giggled to myself. Holy shit I thought, everyone and I mean evvvvveryone is talking about breast cancer. I wasn't wearing any pink, I had no ribbons anywhere, I was just running!

I gotta hand it to everyone working in the breast cancer worlds because it truly is amazing. Congratulations on making sure the who world is aware this month and everyday..it's mind blowing! Now if only we could get some more amazing treatments for this horrific disease so these women, men, families and friends won't have to suffer so badly. The last thing I want is to see any of my friends and or family members go through this...Finding out what causes breast cancer and narrowing focus and more education on preventative measures.. ok ok ok...I'll stop right here.

All I'm saying is that you just wait until May when it is CF awareness month..I can guarantee no stoner on a skateboard will be screaming "Let's cure cystic fibrosis!" as I run by..what I can guarantee is that amazing new treatments have been developed and are being developed and we are Out Running CF!

That's Just Cold

Toe covers, a beanie and full fingered gloves just about sums up yesterday's ride. It was my first time using all three of my new Pearl Izumi items and I was pretty excited to hit the streets in my new gear. The excitement wore off about 1/4 mile in when I realized that it was f'ing cold.

The thought of my warm cozy bed was dancing in my mind like sugar plum ferries, but I continued on toward downtown. I had to get a decent ride in so I figured I better get some miles downtown because I was getting a little bored with the normal ride around town. Passing the Pochontas statue and gets a little old ... . As I cruised down Jefferson toward Belle Isle around 9 a.m. my fingers started to turn into little icicles but the rest of my body was warm. The sun started to peek out and then stayed out the rest of the ride which really came in handy as I think it thawed out my fingers! I hit a few laps around the Isle which was semi quiet for a beautiful morning.

As I was riding I of course was planning my lunch menu for the day. Because it was cold I needed some warm comfort food. My selections were minimal at home but I did remember that I had some potato pierogi in freezer. Aha..! So I spent the next hour thinking about how to prepare them, what to serve with them (peas and carrot, celery and pear juice) and how good they would be. As I hit the 2 hour mark of my ride I played a little cat and mouse with an older guy cycling. As he caught back up to me it was clear that he was from Europe..he asked about the mileage around the isle, so I filled him in on that and then he told me that cycling is good for his injured knee..ummm, ok cool.  But where are you from?? Italy I first thought but I was wrong. "Poland" he says as I fire back with "I was just thinking about the pierogi I am having for lunch!!" He got a good laugh even though he most likely only understood the word pierogi. He decided to turn it on, cycle away and I never saw him again. It was entertaining for a few minutes at least.

Also while on one of my laps there were two dudes running, most likely training for the Freep. One had a zipped up wind jacket but as I rode past him I got a tiny peek at the shirt he had on underneath. Black with a red logo..hmm..could it be? I tried to stalk them a little more but no dice. As I cruised downtown more toward the river walk and saw the guys again. This time his jacket was around his waist revealing his shirt. Sure enough he was rocking the 2011 Rock CF Rivers black with red half shirt! When I saw this I smiled like a fool...the could have thought that something was wrong with me because I was just looking at them and smiling.. but it made my day!

Hoping to get 56 miles in, I finished up with 47 instead. I didn't eat a big enough breakfast and I couldn't get my energy to come back that last hour, even with some Hammer Gel..plus I was chilly and my legs were a little beat from Saturday's 10 miler. I didn't feel bad calling it a day because it was a great ride and it proved that I am tough enough to ride in the semi cold weather!

Rest and yin yoga today!

Why am I doing this? G.l.o.r.i.a..

Last long run before the PPD Beach 2 Battleship Half Ironman!!

Click the logo above to see my PPD Hero video!

That's right folks, we are 14 days away from the biggest race and one of the coolest opportunities of my life. Armstrong asked me on the run this morning if I was getting nervous..saying no would be a lie. I am not nervous that anything will go wrong or that I won't do well in the race, it's more of an "I am so excited for everything that is going to happen and now I have butterflies whenever I think about it!"Not only will I be doing my first 1/2 iron man, but I'll also be speaking a few different times around town and meeting some incredible people; other PPD heroes and of course everyone at PPD!

Yesterday I started back with my PT guru Greg who is going to do enough to get my knee and hip feeling good but not too much that could inflame anything. Everything felt pretty damn good today. No knee or IT issues after 10 so that's a good sign. My hip was a little sore but nothing that would alter my stride or stop me.

I got my last double digit run in at 7am today, 10.2 miles. Now I will start to dial everything down while staying healthy and not doing anything stupid....that is hard to do. Becky ran the first 6'ish with me and then I finished up 4 on my own.  Today's run wasn't my best, I was coughing quite a bit,  spitting some sticky situations up, my lungs felt harsh and my stomach wasn't 100%. No big deal though...Could be the 18 bean soup I've been eating all week, or the shredded wheat cereal...definitely dropping my fiber next week and the week after. Yikes.

Around mile 8 this morning my mind really started to wander. Thoughts about the race were running (and cycling) through my head, how's my transition going to work? Is my nutrition and fueling going to work? I gotta make sure I pack everything!..and a whole lot more. I also started to think of how big of an event this is, how much time and training I've put in, and what it really means for me. In 5 years I've done 7 half marathons, multiple 275-350 mile bike trips and have spoken to crowds of 10-5,000. 4 of these half marathons and 3 of these 300+ mile rides were done before I was on blue lighting/Kalydeco when my lung function sucked and I was in the hospital 2-3 times a year. When I started running I couldn't even run a block without coughing and spitting and gasping for breath. Slowly I built up and in 2 weeks I'll be biking 56 miles and then running 13.1 miles? Hey, wha happen?...of course this is after my awesome "Violent Phlegms" teammate and fellow CF rockstar Scott swims the 1.2 miles and tags me. Leading up to the race I will be joining a few other PPD Heroes where we will be telling our clinical trial and personal stores to groups around Wilmington, N.C. Exciting stuff here.

During these last 2 miles today thoughts also went to all of my CF friends around the world. Mostly I thought about my friend Gloria who passed away almost 2 years ago now. She lived in the neighborhood where I bike and run daily and she is constantly on my mind while training. Today though it really hit me and I had a really tough time finishing those last two miles. Why isn't she here anymore? Why am I able to train so much and then in two weeks do a half ironman distance triathlon, something that only like 70,000'ish people sign up to do each  year? (I may be off a little..) There has got to be a reason for this of course and I realize now after living through so many of these "why" moments, that this is the way life goes and you cannot change it. You simply, not it's usually not simple, must keep moving forward. All I know is that I miss Glo and I'm going to take her spirit to N.C. with me to do this race. We both loved The Who so maybe if I start to go crazy on the course I will sing the entire Tommy soundtrack in my mind during the race, although she like Quadrophenia better.....

The coming weeks will be amazing and I will be excited with anticipation for everything that's coming up. I cannot thank my friends and family who have trained with me to make sure that I will be ready; 5:30 am rides, 6 am runs, windy as hell rides, hot rides, dark and cold rides, shitty runs, flat tires, ice cream rides and funny stories. Next weekend will officially kick off my carb load week with the Pancake run! I've never felt more ready for a race before...so let's do this!

Go Green and Go Tigers!!!!!