In honor of the Blazeman: 1971-2007

If you follow triathlon, especially the "big" race in Kona, Hawaii the last two years, no doubt you would know the story of Jon "Blazeman" Blais. On May 2, 2005, Jon Blais was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. As a teacher (and a triathlete) in all aspects of his life, he wanted everyone to know that 70 years after the passing of Lou Gehrig, very little has changed for those with ALS. After being diagnosed with ALS, Jon Blais went on to do the Kona Ironman race in Hawaii that same year. The following was taken from an article at Competitor.com regarding his Ironman experience:

In his prime, Blais would have swam the 2.4 miles in about 1:05. He was hoping for 1:30. Instead he went 1:50 because he was only able to use one arm and his body was cramping badly. On the bike he couldn’t get out of the saddle, his upper torso felt like a brick and his quads and calves were seizing up with every turn of the pedals. At the turnaround in Hawaii, a race official told him that he wasn’t going to make the 5:30 p.m. cutoff time for the bike.
“I had just opened my special needs bag,” he laughs, “so I chucked my banana bread at him. There was no way I was going to miss that cutoff.”
The NBC camera crew that had been following him earlier had disappeared, as his chances of starting the marathon continued to dwindle.
“They took off,” he remembers. “They gave up on me and went to film another story.”
Fortunately, Blais doesn’t believe in giving up — on the kids he teaches or the dreams he’s living. By mile 80, he was back on pace and the camera crew was there to capture him finishing the bike and starting the marathon with his parents, 20 friends and the entire world there to witness a miracle in the making.

Before the race, Mike Reilly, the voice of the Ironman, had asked Blais what he was going to do at the finish line. A handstand? A cartwheel? A Greg Welch-style leap? But Blais told Reilly that he didn’t know if he was going to finish and that Reilly might have to log roll his sorry butt across the line.
So when he approached the line, that’s exactly what The Blazeman did. In the same way he has dealt with his disease, he proudly took his time, dropped to the ground and log rolled ever so slowly towards the finish of the race and ever closer to the finish of his life.
He savored every second of the journey. To the very end he will be the teacher. He is teaching us all about a disease that is insidious and totally ignored. He is teaching us how to handle adversity. But most of all he is teaching us to never, ever give up.
“You can choose to be pissed off, or pissed on,” he laughs.The Blazeman, as always, chooses the former.

Greg and I watched this story, and it was really impressive, but I don't think it really hit us until the following year. He did it. He completed 140.6 miles in 17 hours. The guy must not have been THAT bad off. Right?

I don't think my husband will be overly embarrassed if I let it be publicly known that we watched last year's Ironman and we both cried. Not little wimpy, I hid it before you saw it sneaky tears--I'm talking, go get the Kleenex box and make a pile on the floor Kleenex. The same man that finished an Ironman the previous year was in a wheelchair and could barely talk to the media the following year. There was a tremendous amount of publicity, and the story was the type that you never forget. Apparently, there still is no cure for the disease. Once diagnosed, a person has 2-5 years to live. Jon Blais has done much to educate others on this debilitating disease. You can learn more about him and his cause at http://www.alswarriorpoet.com/. Jon Blais died Sunday, May 27, 2007. May God welcome this fine man to heaven and declare him an Ironman as he enters. Rest in Peace Blazeman.

Race Report: Bolder Boulder '07

What an absolutely great day! We had beautiful weather. We had thirty-three friends and friends of friends meet beforehand, carpool to the race, and then enjoy a great BBQ afterwards. We had people dressed like a charging bull. We had people dressed like they were running with the bulls. I found two people that didn't mind running my pace for 6.2 miles--one was even such a good friend she was willing to dress like me! (We got lots of cheers along the way, too!) The Memorial Day tribute brings a tear to my eye every year...It was at this event six years ago that Greg and I first said, "I love you." This truly is a special event. This year didn't hold back. I had to laugh when I went to work the next day and a coworker did her first Bolder Boulder. She exclaimed, "I don't know how you do what you do! That was hard!" I've never thought of it as hard--I mean, it is, but you just don't think about. You just do it because 50,000 other people are doing it too! Nonetheless, the Bolder Boulder was just as fun as ever with its free beer, sprinklers and garden hoses, belly dancers, Elvis impersonators, slip and slide, and even the free bacon! It was missing two very important things this year... We missed our friends Matt and Dani who now reside in Texas and Kirk and Gina whose little baby girl (okay, BIG baby girl 8lb.8oz!) decided to say her welcome to the world at 3:30 a.m. on this glorious day! Thanks to all our friends that made this such a wonderful day! We can't wait to do it again next year!

Weekend summary

Well, my workouts have definitely jumped up this week. We figured it out and as of next week, Greg and I are almost on par with each other in workout length. That just doesn't seem fair when you consider I took over two months off... It was never more evident than on our bike ride Sunday when he went up the hills like nothing. Now granted, he does this anyway, but when I'm wheezing for breath and he's lollygagging around at the top of a hill, it really drives home the fact that he's two months ahead of me in my training!

Strange feeling occurred this week, too. I'm really hoping the novelty doesn't wear off: I did an hour and a half run on Saturday. Yeah, it kind of hurt... I did the 2 1/2 hour bike ride on Sunday... Yeah, at an hour and forty-five minutes, my butt started to hurt! But... Here's the good stuff! When it hurts, I smile! When it hurts, I know I'm really doing it! I'm really training for Ironman. If it didn't hurt, it wouldn't feel like Ironman training! And it makes me sooooo happy to think I might actually do this!

I have been nervous and worrying all week about doing the Bolder Boulder on my rest day after a tough weekend. Not to mention running on my rest day and going into an even bigger week. My swims will be jumping up to 24oo and 2200 yards next weekend. That's a big jump for me, especially when done on the same day as a 3 hour bike ride... But when I told one of my girlfriends that used to coach swimming, she brought me down and reminded me that to a swimmer, that distance is nothing... Huh. She's actually right, eventually some portion of that could end up being just my warmup. Whew! Can't wait for that! Onward and upward. We're doing it!

5.27.07 Week stats:

5150 yards - swimming
59.07 miles - biking
13.3 miles - running
1.53 miles - walking

Runners

Hmmm... Which one am I?

Ode to the Bolder Boulder

Alas! The Bolder Boulder Memorial Day 10K is upon us! This will be my sixth year doing this glorious race and my husbands 15th year racing it!!!!!! Every year we get a few people to dress up for this casual game of 'dodge the 50,000 (literally!) people in front of you for six miles and maybe have a beer with the locals while you're at it.' We've done disco, hawiian, superheros, and this year Greg's hoping to get somebody to dress like they're running with the bulls in Spain (all white with red scarves--Greg, Tim, and another friend have actually done this crazy event!)

In honor of my husband and his crazy dreams, I offer up some ideas taken from the Bay to Breakers 12K foot race in San Franciso every year. Someday honey...

Every year since 1994 a group of pranksters from the Cacophony Society has a group dressed as salmon. They join at the midpoint of the race and spawn their way upstream. This could be a lot of fun! If only I could get someone that doesn't want to run hard with me... and the 30 people we squeeze into a carpooled van could be a little uncomfortable, too...

Rob, our resident van owner and driver every year might not appreciate this one either. Ew! What if Papa Smurf sweat a lot????????

Bolder Boulder 2007! We've got a group of 32 runners/walkers this year! It's not too late to join the fun!!!!

Week summary 4/20/07

Yeah! This is one of my new greatest friends, Deanne. She's a teacher I work with and one of the reasons switching to teach at the middle school was a good move for me. Today was Deanne's FIRST half marathon!!!! I jumped in and ran with her the last mile, because I thought that might help the last mile go quicker, but I have no doubt she could have done it by herself. She reminds me of my friend Amy a lot. She's extremely stubborn. She may not have trained enough, but if you tell her she can't do it, she'll work that much harder to prove to you that she can. Now if I could just talk her into doing triathlons with me...



This is my friend Chris. This was his second half-marathon and he even trained for it this year! Unfortunately the beautiful Spring weather called his name a little too loudly yesterday and he did a ton of yard work, lifting bricks, etc. and it got the better of him this morning. That's a lesson to us all! Don't do anything excessive the day before a race!!! He was only two minutes off his time from last year, so he still did really well. I can't wait to see what he does next year! (wink wink Chris is also single and one of the nicest guys I know!)

Because Greg and I absolutely love stuff like this. We volunteered to sherpa for them while they ran this morning. It was a lot of fun for us. We cheered for our friends and several complete strangers, too. I know how much I appreciate random cheers when I'm racing.

It was an early morning though. The race STARTED at 6 a.m. That's earlier than most of our triathlons! We looked at it as good practice. The only bad part was my need for sleep this week. My training definitely made a huge jump this week. It's Sunday night and my body is completely aware that I did more than I've done in a long time this week. I'm so looking forward to my rest day tomorrow. My #1 goal for the coming week-Get more sleep!!!!

Workout Summary for the week of 4/14/07 - 4/20/07:

Swim - 1.47 miles

Bike - 49.36 miles

Run - 11.25 miles

Walk- 1.67 miles

Gotta love having a personal coach!

So my coach has all my workouts written out for the next four weeks. On Saturday, May 26, I have to run an hour and twenty-five minutes. I also have to do a handful of exercises to strengthen my core. On Sunday, I have to bike two and half hours and swim a mile. Mondays are the day to rest my body. On Tuesday I start the week all over again.

Here's the problem: The Memorial Day Bolder Boulder 10K is on Monday the 28th. I can't miss running into that stadium filled with people! The skydivers! The jets flying overhead! It's tradition and now my sixth year running it!

So I'm commenting to my husband that I wasn't sure if I should switch my Wednesday run over to Monday or my Saturday run. He reminds me that I'm paying a coach to make those decisions for me. So I ask my coach how I can fit the 10K in there, and he politely, but admittedly laughing, throws it in on Monday, but takes nothing else out!!!! And he tells me to enjoy it, have fun--and to definitely, definitely not race it! Not that I'd race it anyway when you consider I haven't run more than three miles in several months! Like I'm going to go out and suddenly race 6.2! Ha! But I think he made sure to guarentee that I wouldn't race it... Lucky me.

On a side note--schools almost out, the kids are going wild and I swear it's just like the week before Christmas around there! Not only are the kids hog wild--there are sweets everywhere I looked this week! Glad I'm finally working out, because I think I would have otherwise gained five pounds this week!

Updated

Wow! What a crazy two busy two weeks. I don't know how it got so crazy, but it did! Lots of activities at school: two art show nights, a track meet, and I really enjoyed going over to our high school last weekend to help out as the high school coaches and girls gave a small volleyball camp to our middle school girls. It made me realize that I really do love volleyball, I just wish I were more talented at it. More talent=more practice, but I just don't see much volleyball happening until after my IM race. I can live with that.

IM training has picked up again. I'm such a happy camper!!!! I tried swimming this week and I was able to do it with little to no pain. I'm now running again, too! My coach has my workouts written out for the next month and the game is back on! It's a little scary to see how my long weekend bike rides go from and hour and a half this past weekend, and build a half hour every week for the next three weeks. I'll also be up to an hour and 45 minute run on the weekends in three weeks. That's a lot to jump up to in three weeks. We figured it out and my workouts will be very similar to Greg's in a three weeks--and he's been building slowly over the last three months...

Initially I had planned to do a half-Ironman in August. I went to sign up because it's almost sold out and Greg reminded to me check with my coach. Most training plans for a half Ironman are 18 weeks long. I only have 13 weeks until the half Ironman. Surprisingly, my coach told me to do it. I volunteered at this particular race two years ago. It's the 5430 Long Course on August 12 in Boulder. I wanted to do it last year, but my bike crash took me out of the training needed to do a race of that size. I'm pretty excited to think I'll actually do it this year. I'm actually signed up this year!!!!! Wow! I was a little disappointed that Greg didn't sign up to do it with me, but hopefully he'll be there to cheer me on. It's a well run race.

Okay, I'll wrap up here with my stats from last week. I actually have some stats! They're not huge, but it's a start!

Swim - 600 yards
Bike - 44.38 miles

Run - approx. 5 miles

Walk - approx. 5 miles

Wouldn't see this in Michigan!

So I'm feeling pretty good the last few days... YAHOO!!!! My coach has me trying to run next week, so I decided try it today. I figured I could walk if need be, but I didn't need to! There is a cool trail system just down the road from my school. It's great because it's all single track stuff that makes you feel like you're miles from the big city... The trails are closed until April 1 so the elk and other wildlife have a safe preserve during the winter. I've been two other times since April 1. The first time was good, but I coughed a lot. The second time I didn't fare as well and walked most of it. I did find a piece of petrified wood that day! How cool is that? I felt kind of guilty taking it, but I figured it wasn't a state or national park--it's open space... So it's cool as long as treasure it and don't throw it in the trash.

Today was the best yet. I jogged!!! I did a mile no problem (albeit, a 12 minute mile, but hey, that's normal for me.) I played around at the top of the lookout for a couple of minutes and then jogged back. I think I could have run more, but I definitely didn't want to push it too soon. I was so excited--maybe this Ironman thing WILL happen!

Here's what I didn't expect--a handwritten sign taped to the entrance:

"4/3/07 Rattlesnake on the Watering Hole Loop Trail 2:45 p.m."

I took a picture of it with my camera phone thinking it would be a cool thing to post on my blog. My mom might get a kick out that... But wouldn't you know it, I haven't a clue how to upload the pictures from my phone to the computer. This will have to do for now...

And mom, if you're reading this, I didn't run the watering hole loop, I opted for a different trail... XO

four to six weeks down!

I'm feeling pretty good tonight. My all-school art show is DONE! I had a tough two weeks with the all-district show last week (I took home top honors in ceramics! A first prize and two honorable mentions! I also took an honorable mention in painting.) In a separate art show for the district my students won cash prizes for overall 3rd place seventh grader, and an overall 2nd place for 8th grade. I did well! Now I can start to really focus on winding up the school year (and planning for next year!)

I was pretty excited the other day because I discovered one of our local rec centers has a current channel/lazy river and I noticed it said "Water Walking" on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 6-7 a.m. I tried the water walking my coach recommended but it hurt my ribs too much. I was so excited to try water walking in this environment instead!

Now keep in mind, I'm not a morning person--but I did it, I got up at the butt crack of dawn... And a strange thing happened... I liked it! The sun was up (I think that makes all the difference in the world) a slight chill is in the air, but you know it's going to warm up, and the birds were chirping. It reminded me of an early triathlon morning!

Until I got to the pool.... No triathletes in that mix. Turns out water walking is a class. And not to take anything away from the nice ladies in the class--heck, they got up early to do some exercise, so I give the gals some credit! Unfortunately they were doing a lot of hopping, spinning and dancing in the direction of the current. A workout that I had to seriously question the caloric burn tally... But it took effort for them to get there, so like I said, kudos to them for getting out there and trying something. I noticed the class wasn't listed for every day, so I figured I try the water walking thing in the current channel another time.

So I went back yesterday during the "open swim" time at 6 a.m. I still enjoyed the early morning bird songs and sunrise! Maybe I could do this getting up early thing afterall....? Nah... Who am I fooling? There were two other women in the channel with me. One walking with the current and a buoy thing as seen above, and another switching directions and hopping along with her buoy thing. I think she was practicing for the water walking class the following day. I just walked against the current. I tried to run a few times, but the floor of the channel was slippery and I was afraid I'd slip and fall, chip a tooth, and look like a hillbilly school teacher without a dental policy.

Speaking of dental, my tooth pain is going away, so I think my antibiotics are working! Sinus junk is doing better. Looks like I'll be running soon!!!!!!!! Still not so sure about the swimming. The ribs still flare up on me.

I was looking at a calendar tonight and got happy. Do you know it's now been a full six weeks since I was diagnosed with pneumonia? And four weeks since I had the memorable coughing fit that I think caused all the rib problems. And I'm starting to feel better! It's been a long 4-6 weeks (it really does feel waaay longer than that) but I may just be hitting the end of that road. Yahoo! Time to chart a new path! Ironman, I'm after you!!!