Swim, bike, run - How Bad ASS can I be?

Some events have happened over the last few days in my family that made me reflect on how we all have inner strength and how we can choose to harness it and use it to accomplish things, to fight even when it seems so incredibly hard or unfair or we can choose to - for whatever the reason - not, sometimes with devastating results. This time it was okay... So in the aftermath I thought about all the women I know and how far we have all come and evolved over the last few years as people and athletes. How at one point or another we have all reached deep within our selves to find strength whether to finish a race, a class, face a medical issue, a sudden family loss, break up or the end of a freindship. It seemed like the right time to talk about Stormy and a friend who's inner strength and determination truly amaze me. Cynthia - aka Princess - is a lady that I met while training for my 2nd marathon. We run, train and co-coach half marathons together and co-founded the How Bad Can it be

Well I can actually walk and run again with minimal pain, my quads are starting to feel better. Last Sunday instead of going for a run Vicki called and invited me out for a hike. At first I said no but changed my mind. The hike was to be the Lions which is in my backyard and I have never been up there. The Lions are two side by side mountains on the Sea to Sky Highway. It was going to be one of the last clear days this year and well my border collie - Bishop- would absolutely love it! Plus it was a little shamefull that I had never been to the top and I lived at the base of the trail head. So after thinking about it some more I decided that me and the dog would head up with Vicki and the girls (Cynthia and Tanis). How bad could it be? It is only a mountain! We got up bright and early on Sunday, packed our bags with water, lunch, gels, extra jackets, gloves, camera and such. The hike was to take about 7 hours there and back. Now let me preface this by saying I was born in the Prairies

Last weekend I went to Victoria and ran my 3 rd full Marathon and I have to say that this one was the most fun! I had not planned on doing a fall marathon and only decided – actually that is not quite true to decide means I had a choice in the matter – to do this race in August. Why was I doing Victoria? Because two of my gal pals had decided that this was to be their first full. Actually for my friend Victoria (aka “Vic the awesome running machine”) it was technically her second full but that is a whole other post I will do in the near future. Kirsten one of my clinic grads and now close buddies decided after some minor teasing that she was going to do a full. OMG was all I said when she told me she had registered. I tried to explain that we were teasing her but well she is young, spunky and apparently overly impressionable. So the dye was cast the gang was going to Victoria to do the full. The morning of, my roommate for the weekend, June, and I headed down to the start line 3

Well as part of my quest for Ironman 2009 I have registered along with my hubby for Oliver Half Iron next June. (Gulp) To say I am a little anxious is the understatement if you read the first post you would know that my last attempt at a Half Ironman was less than spectacular. The whole thing did not go as I planned but the swim was the start of the unravel. As a kid I loved swimming and thought I was pretty good at it. I took lessons, I was a volunteer lifeguard at the local pool and I swam all the time. Okay so I did not swim in races or with a club but I was in the pool or a lake constantly. When I started doing triathlons I was not that concerned about the swim except to make sure I could swim the distance constantly without stopping and that was how I trained. Go to the pool get in the water and do lengths constantly equaling the distance for the race 3 times a week makes sense right – apparently not so much. I came to realize this when I entered a woma