BURY ME AT WOUNDED KNEE

Last week training before Morgantown went very well. Sorry things did not workout for me to race at Maumee. I missed seeing a new friend, Ann, from the Akron area, do very well in the Olympic, her first triathlon. She has a compelling story, which I hope to share with you in the months to come. Rob Reddy placed 6th. Congrats Kenny Bodnar, who is truly stud of all 50-54 studs came in 9th. Way to kick the kids butts, Kenny. I am not in the same solar system as Kenny. I see race director Shannon Kurek was 2nd in his final year before he hits 40 .


Tonight, I am beaming with pride. Remember Kaleb Kaschalk, the 19 year old, policeman in the making who was the youngest competitor at Ironman France???? Kaleb got it done!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! 15 hours 17 minutes. I am extremely proud of that young man. Awesome.!! he raised lots of money for cancer research in honor of his late grampa. An incredible young man. Way to go Kaleb.!!! I know the marathon had to be torture...it was about 6 hours alone.

I know many bloggers tackled Cda..and I was following Bigun and a few others. Congrats to all who went up against the challenge. I look forward to reading about all your adventures. Of course Bree Wee was amazing in Japan. 9 hours, 37 minutes!! Fantastic.

and now...... HE WOULD MAKE A HECK-UVA IRONMAN

You just have to know that if he were to sign up for one and to train for the Ironman that he would do very very well. We have already seen the signs. He is at heart a runner, and an athlete with speed, power and grace and..I forgot to mention..true grit. He has the strongest will of any athlete in his sport.. he simply will never allow himself to lose. He could be having a lousy week and by any one elses standards the thoughts would be "ohh well get em next week, but this guy keeps on grinding and grinding and finding a way to go one step better, to find a solution to the hell that he currently is in.

This man, would be a great Ironman, because he can withstand pain. In fact in his most recent competition, he had excruciating pain and continued. He bore the look of a man being beaten by palace guards. but while he acknowledged the pain, he never let it master him. He kept his focus and lived the words his father taught him. " never, never quit" ....and thats what he was doing.. But this candidate for the sport of triathlon sacrificed the health of a body part to try to win one of the biggest awards in his sport. For now he has been told to start from scratch after he has surgery. Its back to square one to try to regain his form. I never doubted for even one second that if Eldrick Woods wanted to, he could swim, bike and run and GET IT DONE.

He could crank up his workouts and one day don the wetsuit and tackle an Ironman.. He could oneday go to Kona and conquer the lava fields. I don't doubt it for a second.
In my second Ironman distance race, I had a left knee that was screaming at me in 6 languages.It was torture in some ways, but I was never going to allow the discomfort of a knee keep me from crossing that finish line, even if it was 15 hours and 30 minutes after I started. Tiger stood up to the intense pain while swinging a golf club and placing unbelievable torque on his left knee.He kept on trucking.
I don't know how good of a swimmer he is, but what do you think??? Could the worlds best golfer take on an Ironman and finish??? Would his knee hold up?? A penny for your thoughts.