Ring in the New...Hello 2013!

Good bye 2012, you were good to me with a new job, great trips to St Croix, Vegas, Tuscon, Kona, Cozumel, some great race results, and many new friends and teammates. I really have no complaints with you other than the nasty hip injury that kept me on the sidelines more than I like. I’m going to make sure 2013 doesn’t do that to me, because I like to race. But I’m done with you 2012, its time to break up. No hard feelings though, I am just ready for a new start. I am hooking up with 2013 now.

2013 can give me what you can’t. I get bored often and like to change it up so I’m ready to start over with some new goals and adventurers.


welccome 2013!


With 2013 I have:

* a new race schedule , new races I’ve never done, some new goals and a new age group to go with that ( not saying which one because I don’t feel that old)

*More new friends and teammates as I get to race for WattieInk for a second year, and with that comes great sponsors like Kswiss, Blue seventy, Power Bar, Fuelbelt,  Kask,  ISM, plus a fancy new race kit:

*New challenges like balancing training with working more hours.  I’ve had to become a regular at working out at the crack of early to fit it all in. Once you get used to it, it’s not that bad but there are times I walk around like the zombies in walking dead, which Adam and I have gotten hooked on.

So professional...

*More fun travel with new adventures in familiar spots like Tuscon, Vegas, Georgia hopefully Kona again (no pressure…A. Z.!), and new places still to be determined

*Some very exciting and fun new clients I am coaching; can’t wait to see what 2013 brings them

*Because I get bored, I always like to give my blog a wardrobe change at the start of a new year, still working on  udating this one

With the end of 2012, I have been working a lot. I didn’t take any days off and have been doing the holidays while working a ton. I can’t say that is the most enjoyable way to experience Christmas but I have still managed to have a lot of fun. I have been training, mostly running a lot. We discovered some new trails not too far from our house (crazy we’ve lived in our house almost 8 years and never new these trails were there) and running with some new scenery makes the cold a little more fun. Now its time to gut the house of all the sugar, garbage food, and Christmas decorations and welcome in 2013.

snowy trail runs!
fun Nike's tying me over until more KSwiss arrives!

Happy New year to all my amazing family, friends and teammates!

Christmans-Man

2012 is coming to an end, but new thing are already starting for 2013! I am super excited to have been selected to be on the Wattie Ink Elite team again for next year, and have already been signing up and planning which races to rock the W. I’ll be kicking off the season with a ½ marathon in Georgia in March, and then doing New Orleans 70.3 in April!

But to finish out 2012 we spent the weekend in the city which turned out to be a little like doing an Ironman. It’s been awhile, but I’ve done 4 Ironman. I’ve spectated many Ironman events and have coached athletes to cross their first Ironman finish or qualify for Kona, so I am quite familiar with the qualities that go into finishing an ironman. Some of these include but are not limited to are: patience, determination, proper nutrition plan, and focus all of which were required as we set out to experience all that downtown Chicago has to offer at Christmastime.

When starting an Ironman event you need a large amount of patience and that was no different as we set out Saturday morning trying to coordinate getting 12 people together into the city at the same time and meeting point. 1 car ride, 1 train ride, and 1 cab ride we finally made it to our hotel just in time for lunch and to re fuel for the rest of the day. Any Ironman knows having a nutrition plan can make or break your race again that was no exception for us this weekend. We transitioned from lunch into window spectating at Macy’s and viewing the amazing tree in the Walnut room. From there we made our way to the Kriskringle market. Of course by this time of day on a decently warm Saturday afternoon 2 weeks before Christmas it was packed. I felt like I was in a mass start of an Ironman waddling our way through a mob. I noticed it became congested near the food booths, kind of like an aid station becomes clogged up with people. Also rounding the outer corners of the market, also became congested like rounding the buoy’s at the swim turns. Of course by this time we needed to hit the aid station as well and had to sample soft pretzels, and chocolate covered marshmallows.


they actually got close enough to see at this window



We completed that event and moved on to Millennium Park to attempt ice skating, but of course another pit stop was required/ refueling was required at the fancy cupcake shop in order to continue. Pushing yourself too far or overextending yourself in an Ironman will lead to disaster and possibly the end of your race. It requires focus to stay on target on make right choices throughout the day. This was the case with ice skating. The line was horrifically long, and waiting that long for our turn on the ice might have put us over the edge and ended our night early, so we checked out the Bean, which at night with the Christmas nights looked amazing.

The next transition included dinner back at the hotel while re-evaluating the race strategy for the rest of the evening to ensure everyone made it through the event having a good time. We decided to dig deep, and go for it heading up to Lincoln Park to see the zoo lights, and it was well worth the extra effort.The cab line was long, and Adam doesn't like waiting in line so we found ourselves heading to the zoo in this which of course was the kid's favorite part of the day.




nothing like going to the zoo in style!



 The zoo lights was my  favorite part and worth the extra push to the end. The final limo ride back to the hotel was the final push and required some zoo popcorn, but we made it collapsing into bed back at the hotel. We completed our event with success. No bonks...how could we. Every event change we were eating, no melt downs...we stayed focused and were determined and stuck to the plan, yet adapted when we needed to.  So far I haven't seen any post event depression as Christmas celebrating is continuing. Luckily my training is picking up again because I felt like this cow which hangs from the ceiling in Ed Debevik's, which was our aid station on Sunday following shopping on Michigan Ave.

Good Luck to any of you who have a Christmas, Ironman like event coming up!

Bienvenidas Mexico!

I have been to New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, and all around the US, but never to Mexico. So a late fall trip to Mexico to spectate and support another Ironman, didn’t seem like such a bad idea. Call it intuition, but I before even leaving the country I wasn’t having good feelings about the the trip at all for quite a number of reasons….. but how could I complain…it’s a trip to Mexico in November! So I focusing on the sun, beaches, Mexican food and 3 days post race with a husband finally not training for the next thing which would be waiting for me.

Thanksgiving day we flew to Cancun and took a choppy ferry ride over to Cozumel and while it was essentially a 3.5 hr flight….it felt as long as flying to Kona by the time we got to the resort and sat down to eat real food. There were a number of challenging portions to our trip, including sickness and race dynamics to name a few..... I’ll just share the fun positives of spending a week in Mexico! and leave the negatives back in the jungles of Isa de Cozumel.


I got to swim in warm Caribbean water, then chill beachside!

Beautiful Sunsets

Warm sunny tropical runs; I got in a number of good run miles on the island and it feels good to see those run times coming down again!!! I have signed up for 1 race so for and that is Georgia 1/2 marathon March 17. I am so excited to race again, I have spent the last part of this season cheering everyone else on, I'm looking forward to making it to the start line again!

Catching up with friends I haven’t seen for a while…..it was so fun to catch up with our friend Cesar Valera from Venezuala, who was a home stay with us last summer; plus he helped us out in the stores and restaraunts  with the locals

Killer margaritas while spectating with girlfriends made the 6 mile walk to the finish way more tolerable… yes we had  a bit of a spectator epic fail, or bad race organization but fter sitting 30 min in a taxi going nowhere because of traffic back up we opted to walk the 6 miles to the finish. It was  our mission  to make it to the run course by the time Adam started the run! We made it with about 20 minutes to spare!



best seat in the house


My fav for the trip though was...
Hanging out on a remote beach the day after the race with friends; we were serenaded by the mariachi guy, ordered the freshest guacamole, salsa and chips along with cerveza and margaritas pretty much made the trip!



beach side entertainment



best way to recover, beachtime


I got sick the night before leaving to come home and felt like the walking dead for the next 2 days at work, walking around in a stupor with no voice and trying to catch up and get in the Christmas groove all at the same time



me Thursday at work



 I rallied in to time to put a stamp on the 2012 race season at the Multisportmadness Year end party with an 80s theme!  Fun night with friends, great 80 s costumes and dancing! We celebrated like we train and race! My legs were sore the next day from dancing!



Sue's Flashdance pose