Kathleen's Adventures

I have not "officially introduced" my new bike on my blog, and it only seems right to do so. So, here she is: Note Philip, my bike's baby daddy, named it. Destroyer is far too aggressive sounding for my taste, but I do admit it is growing on me. I guess as long as you put "Pink" in front of it, it does not sound as intimidating and monster-like any more :-) Philip does a more formal introduction here . The Redman Half Ironman was her debut ride and I'll blog more about that race at some point, if my life ever seems to calm down or get close to back to normal. Short story is that I had a 21 minute PR (5:50 finish time) and that Jon kicked butt and came in at 5:00 on the dot for his first race at that distance. The funny part is that is the exact time I had predicted for him but I did not tell him my prediction and he did not tell me what he had in his head time wise either (I won that "competition" by the way...he was assuming he'd take c...

I'm currently in the middle of one of the biggest internal debates my head, heart, and soul have ever had. I pray about it each night, but so far I do not seem to be getting any answers, or I am not seeing them if they are there. Sometimes I find myself just sitting, asking, "why does life have to be so hard sometimes? Why can't things just be okay for a while? Do I not deserve for things to be okay? Is anything easy? Why do I try so hard to do the right thing and make people happy when it seems most of the time no one notices at all (...or maybe they do notice, just not the ones I want to notice)?" Then I sit back and ask just how selfish can I be. I have a mom and a dad who still very much love each other, and are healthy. I have a sister who has a wonderful family and the three most beautiful girls I have ever seen. That is more than some people could ever ask for, yet here I am asking, longing, for more, when my best friend no longer has a mother or one o...

Only three more big weeks of training and then it is TAPER TIME!!! The realization that I have not taken enough down time lately slapped me in the face Saturday morning. I was hoping to run 16-17 miles and ended up with 15.5. Certainly not failure by any stretch of the imagination, but just a friendly reminder that I am not invincible and also that being emotionally exhausted can take a huge physical toll on your body. I had originally thought that last week ended up being more of a rest week than originally planned because I only got in two runs and one bike ride as opposed to the normal 2 bikes, 2-3 runs, and 2 swims. I was anything but rested come Saturday morning when it was time to run. The 15.5 miles that I did run were good and at a good pace, so no complaints, just the need to listen to my body. I had just come off two big weekends already (15 mile run/101 mile ride one weekend, then a half ironman race the next), so despite the reduction in workload during last week, I still...

This is one of the thoughts shared during the last week that has stuck with me. Mike's Uncle Larry spoke Thursday night at Kristi's vigil, and spoke directly to Mike, Katie, and Mr. McCarthy when he spoke those words: "do you really want her back here on earth?" To give a little background, Mike's Uncle Larry is an incredible man. He lost his mother when he was a teenager, two of his four children (one as an infant/toddler, another when she was in high school), a sister six years ago, and a niece one week ago. One would seriously wonder how he and his wife are able to face the world each day, but they do, and they do it with a sense of peace, humility, grace, and courage that the rest of us could only hope to have one day in our lives. Larry's words during the vigil Thursday night were some of the most calming and reassuring words I have ever heard about death. He said after the death of one of his children he was talking to Father Bennie (might be Brother Be...

I am not sure if I have ever felt as helpless as I have since Sunday morning around 8am. Buying cold medicine for Mike and Epsom salt for Katie feels about like the only helpful thing I have done, but that hardly even begins to help take their pain away. For the last 3 years, I have raised money for the American Cancer Society in memory and honor of several close family and friends, including Mike, Kristi, and Katie's mom who died six years ago. I had not yet sent in the paperwork for IMFL this year because I worry about asking people for money over and over again and that I just had not gotten to it. I had planned to do it in the next week or two, but did not want to be very aggressive about asking for money, especially given the current state of the economy. I woke up this morning and thought of one way I could possibly help in a very tiny way. I am going to race for Kristi at Ironman Florida in 6.5 weeks and raise money for the Beaumont chapter of MADD in the process. If you are...

Do one and not the other. Seems simple and obvious, right? Not necessarily. Texas passed a law on September 1 requiring seat belts in all seats now. Before then, they were only required in the front seat. Do you buckle up every single time you are in the back seat? I think I do, but I could not tell you for absolute certain that I do. I will from now on though, no question about it. Now for drinking and driving. Obviously the a-hole that I am about to talk about had to have had waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more than just a drink or two, but I'm asking you to stop and think, even after just one drink, if getting behind the wheel of a car is really absolutely necessary. Is the risk of killing someone else or yourself really worth it? Jon and I woke up Sunday morning, sore and basking in the glory of our fun races the day before, when I looked at my phone and saw 8 missed calls and a few text messages. They were all from my best friend Mike, who had been frantically trying to get a hold of...

Although I'm now left with what looks like an iron burn on my back, I had a great training weekend. Saturday morning I had a good 15 mile run with Shellie and the gang. I hadn't blogged about it, but last Saturday in Austin I had a minor (major) scare with my right foot. I was fearing I had a stress fracture, or the beginnings of one, around mile 13 of that run. The top of my foot hurt, bad. Had I been anywhere near any place that I could have gotten a ride back to Jon and the car, I would have, but the only way back was to hobble/run/walk 3 more miles. It had hurt in the same place the weekend before, again coming on around mile 10 of my long run. It felt like my shoe was rubbing, but taking off the shoe did nothing to take away the pain...I've also been running in those asics for a few years now so it would be weird to assume they were the problem. Anyway, after not being able to move my foot/toes after the run last weekend, the pain slowly went away just as it had the w...

In my family, we do not tell each other "I Love You" nearly enough...as in pretty much never. I am not sure why that is, but it has kind of always been that way. I guess we all just assume the others know we love them, and we do, but it is just never really said. Starting in 2001, September 11 has become my own little "I Love You Day" on which I make sure to tell my family and friends that I love them. Yes, I know once a year is 364+ times less than some people say/hear it, but it is a start. Yes, something absolutely awful happened eight years ago today. Something that I still cannot fathom or even begin to grasp my thoughts around. My goal with "I Love You Day" is not to take away from what happened, but to show honor and respect for the victims and families of that day in my own tiny little way. So, because love is meant to be spread, consider taking two seconds of your day today and every I Love You Day to tell someone close to you how you feel. ...

Yesterday was the second Wednesday in a row where I've had a POTSish episode on my run. The first mile or two has been ok, typical warm-up feeling, but then bam! I feel awful. I get lightheaded and jello-legged and end up having to walk very long stretches at a time to try to feel "normal" again. Last Wednesday I attributed it to the Galveston ride, and it was the first run I'd done since then. Yesterday, who knows what was up! I ran on Monday after a decent-sized weekend of training with no problems, but then Wacky Wednesday was back again. This time I was able to still somewhat salvage the run and finished feeling okay, but I don't appreciate these episodes! I guess maybe back to the salt...and maybe compression socks. Funny thing about the socks though is that apparently I can't do Kona now because WTC has just banned compression socks or anything that covers the calf. I was totally planning on racing there until this. Oh well. (HA!) I understand that th...

apparently I don't see the need for it. I was just sitting at Mister Car Wash waiting for my oil to get changed and look down at my jeans...the bottoms of them are torn to pieces. These are what I would call my "nice jeans." Sad. They are also pretty much my only pair of jeans. Sad. I have one other pair I'd wear but a button broke on them about 6 months ago and I have yet to get them fixed. I bought that pair probably 6 years ago and bought the pair I have on today 5 years ago. Seriously. I also hate shopping for jeans so that probably does not help much, and I have no desire to spend the $160 or whatever it was on this pair again. I guess you could say I've gotten my money's worth out of them, and the lovely built-in-stretch has been with me through fat and skinny, but still. I want to walk into a store, try on three pairs, find ones I like, and walk out for $50-$60, but I know that is not going to happen so I do not bother. Spandex or carbon fiber on the ot...

I feel so boring these days yet this week I feel like I've run around non stop with my head cut off. I guess I've run around doing mostly boring stuff though, or work. Blah. I did get to celebrate three new iron( wo )men last night which was lots of fun! Congrats HRTC club members to Laura, Tara, and Matt for awesome first-time performances at Ironman Canada and Ironman Louisville. Laura had a particularly interesting approach to her first ironman ...one that did not technically start until just a couple of months before the race, because she had, you know, a BRAIN TUMOR removed ~4 months before the race. She had to recover for 2+ months from the surgery which did not leave much time to train. You would not have known it when she crossed the finish line a mere 12 hours and 36 minutes after starting her race last Sunday. She's a certified bada $$, but everyone already knew that anyway. Last night I also taught Christie a very important lesson . We'll see how ...