I'm back...I hope.

Hello Reader! Well, this has been a crazy year to say the least, but one that I have learned a lot about myself for sure. It is interesting how you usually look back on some of your toughest times as some of the most important of your life. For me, the first half of this year is certainly starting to look like that. I have had two major pericarditis flare-ups, several minor ones, and some possible near flare-ups as well. As a result, I have not done any triathlon races this year and have been forced to just write the year off. But through all of this time off, I have learned how much I truly love triathlon – especially the training. I have not had any health problems since May and have been able to slowly build the training back up and now hope to do a few road and trail races by the end of the year, including my first half marathon! (No, I don’t count my two 70.3 events as a half marathon.) Perhaps it was the heat, and perhaps it was the fear of another pericarditis episode that kept me from really pushing myself this summer, but I am now finally at a point where I am craving those insanely difficult workouts that make you feel like throwing up. (I never claimed to be normal.) So, for the rest of the year I am planning on running the IBM 10k, San Antonio Half, and hopefully the Rogue FatAss Trail series. Next year, I will look to get back into triathlon and working on my ultimate goal of trying to qualify for Kona*. The plan is to race several 70.3 events throughout the year and see where I am at the end of that. That’s about all for now. In the meantime, run friendly! *Just for clarification, I have no idea if qualifying for Kona is a realistic goal or not. I have never done an Ironman and have no idea if I could get close to breaking 10 hours even with diligent training. My goal is to simply go through all the steps and put in the work to see if I can – the goal is the journey.