Kathleen's Adventures

A fellow Ironman triathlete who I have never met, but who was in Houston receiving treatment for Leukemia, has died today. His coach contacted our club about month ago asking if we could help Dan out, and we said we would help in whatever way possible. I am helping now by joining the National Bone Marrow registry . What about you? To join the registry, you will complete a questionnaire online, and pay $52 for the testing kit which they will mail you directly. It only requires a simple cheek swab. How hard is that? And I understand $52 may seem like a lot of money to some, but it is a small price to pay to possibly save someone's life some day.

I tried a new seat yesterday. On a 90 mile ride. I am walking a bit funny today. On top of that, I am a pure idiot, but that is ok . I took my bike in to get the fit looked at on Saturday. It is a good thing I went now instead of waiting until after IMCDA , which was my original thought, because we changed about everything we could have changed. It wasn't until about halfway through though that we discovered my idiot- ness . I had marked my seat post when I took my bike apart for Vineman , last August. I put my bike back together after that race and went on my merry way. When Johnny started to take my seat post off to replace the seat, he said "oh, this is loose." And I jokingly said "wouldn't that be funny if I didn't put it back as tight as it was supposed to be?" Well, that was not a joke after about 2 seconds....that was the time it took to pull my seat post up to the pretty silver line I had drawn on it last summer. As in, my seat post had dropped a...

I just saw this...me doing what I do best at races... (socializing, or appearing to have something very important to say)

I am learning a lot about this. I think everyone should always be learning about who they want to be, because once you stop trying to learn, you are essentially saying you think you've learned it all and think you are an awesome person, or you have settled to be good enough. Well, I don't think I'm an awesome person, and I am not ready to settle and think I am good enough. Therefore, I am constantly learning about myself and other people. It sounds a little cliche, but actions really do speak louder than words. This has always been true to me, but sometimes it seems to be way more obvious than others. You or I could say something, and "really mean it", but truly, it does not mean much until it is acted out. Take love for example. People say "I love you" all the time. But do they really mean it? Do they act on it? Do they show love on an everyday basis? Or, "this or that is very important and means a lot to me." Does it really? Do you really act...

Got a big leather suitcase, all I own's inside Seems I've been walkin ' for days, can't even bum a ride Try steppin ' to a tune, with the rhythm of a walkin ' man Mind drifts like a big balloon out of my situation at hand Ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory Take you to another place in time Completely change your state of mind Walkin ' down a lonely highway not feelin ' alone Thinkin ' back when things went my way and not the road I'm on Well, I've been down a time or two, but it never lasts long I can always make it through on a wing and a prayer and a song Ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory Take you to another place in time Completely change your state of mind It can make a right from a wrong, it can make you fall in love It can get you singin ' along Chase the clouds away and make the sun shine above A melody can bring back a memory Take you to another place in time Completely change your state...

I have felt like poo for about the last 4 weeks. I had a great week in the middle of March, and it seems like it has all been downhill since then. I have no idea if it has anything to do with POTS or not, but I assume it does. I'm over salt and compression socks. Eating Ramen and Easy Mac on a daily basis just isn't good. I feel like I've fallen off the training wagon too which sucks. I had all sorts of momentum heading into Lonestar and feel like I have somehow just lost it all since then. Granted I've had a lot of other stuff going on, but still. Lonestar meant that I did not run or ride long that weekend. The weekend before that I ran 15 miles and biked 80 on a moderately hilly course. Both of those went pretty well. This past weekend though I only made it 12.5 miles on my long run and our hilly century at the Easter Hill Country Tour turned into 75 miles of hell. The run was hot and humid and a good :30-:45 seconds/mile slower than I have been running. My heart rat...

Sorry I have been so boring lately - lots going on, but not much to say...which for me is very odd! I'll give a quick recap on the race weekend though, because it was a good one. I drove down to Galveston Friday night after traffic had cleared and had smooth sailing all the way...straight into the Taco Cabana line for dinner! (hadn't had fast food in forever....tortillas and queso certainly hit the spot!). (Jon's new decked out rig) Jon was racing the sprint Saturday morning and I raced the quarter on Sunday. It was weird having us race on different days. Saturday morning came obscenely early, especially when I wasn't even racing! I have as much fun spectating/volunteering these days as I do as racing, so it was worth it. Jon's age group was in the first wave of the swim, so they would be easy to spot and track through the whole race. I saw him off, bloody feet and all (he cut his feet on the oyster beds during his warm up) and then took off to the swim finish. The...

Thank God! I ended up at 122.6 (finally lost some weight, but had to practically starve myself to do it...gotta love that POTS has most likely wrecked my metabolic system). I was the 5 th place loser at work, out of 36 people, with a 11.6% weight loss. I am glad that is over. It was the hardest 13 weeks I have ever had dealing with food, and now knowing what I know about POTS, it makes a lot more sense that I had so much trouble. I'm taking a week or two to eat what I want (not go overboard, but certainly eat more than the 1200 calories on average I was eating on week days) then I will get back to trying to eat a little less than I burn, but not nearly as less as I had been. We'll see what happens. I imagine I'll gain weight because I have that kind of luck. Oh well. HOWEVER, we've been challenged again. This time our company is kicking in a little $ to help. They will match 2-to-1 whatever we as employees decide to put in the pot. We will have a one-time we...

Finally! It has been 8 long months since I have raced a triathlon. That may not seem like long to some people, but usually I race well into October and last year my last tri was August 2. I didn't really know at the time it would be my last for the year, but it ended up that way. I'm doing the quarter ironman at Lonestar in Galveston on Sunday. Jon is doing the sprint tomorrow, so I'm heading down tonight. I'm very excited. I don't expect to race well, and this is my first olympic/quarter distance race, but it should still be a fun weekend. They have done all hi-tech and you can watch the race live online now too. I will know literally dozens of people out racing, and seeing familiar faces out on the course is one of my favorite things about local races. There will also be many coming in from out of town that I know to do the race too - whohoo!!