14 races completed for 2014....

That wasn't the plan at the start of this crazy journey.... just ended up that way. I have issues when it comes to registering for a race. I love the adrenaline or something. hahaha

Sitting here looking back to the year that started in March and where I ended up at, I am still in shock at all I have accomplished. Not only in racing but my life as well. I was told to never run or do anything like this thanks to having severe asthma and almost dying twice at a young age. I am grateful for so many people in my life that have helped along the way whether they knew they helped or not. To getting off my ass and making small changes on my own to a friend asking me to join a learn to run program. To hiring an amazing personal trainer to teach me what I am capable of with my body and truly showing me how strong I really am. To having a good friend help me along the way during races and to my triathlon group for their support and encouragement. To the old friends seeing them accomplish so much and inspiring me to strive to do better and show their support and to the new friends I made along the way. To the strangers I met at races who helped me calm down and to the new group (Canadian Mudd Queens)I am apart of and the new girls making me feel welcome in the group at my last race in BC. To my amazing parents, son and family who not only traveled with me to show their support but when they couldn't show it in their own way.. I didn't do this alone and wouldn't gotten very far without everyone involved and to that I am truly grateful and so blessed to have you all in my life.

OK enough of that stuff... onto the good stuff now. hahaha

So my last race (so I say it is but you know me I may toss in another one before the year is up... an easy 5k or something... funny saying 5k is easy now).... so my last race was the Spartan Beast at Sun Peaks BC. I gotta say it was a beast of a course that pushed me to the bitter end. I am shocked at how well I did it and feeling pretty proud too. My friend Mike was a huge help that kept me going, we make a great race team. Even when I wanted to stop so many times and the pain in my knee was so bad at times that I wanted to just give up and quit. But you know me I can't... I came there to accomplish a huge task and I wasn't going to stop until I got both my beast medal and the Spartan Trifecta Medal that I worked so hard at getting this year. The beast was my 4th and final spartan race and I was happy to finish with a time of 5:31:32. I placed 38th out of 70 in my new age category... yes I was bumped up and had to race in the 40-44 group... not bad for a recently turned, severe asthmatic, almost died twice, 40 yr old to get a time like that. Who knew!!! Never in a million years did I think I would be doing these races. Amazed and blessed that I can!!

14 Race Recap:

March - I did a 11km snowshoe race up a mountain in Lake Louise AB
March -  Did my first 10mile indoor triathlon in Calgary AB
April - Spartan Super, Las Vegas NV
May - Spartan Sprint, Big Fork Montana
June - First outdoor Triathlon, Vulcan AB
June - Color me RAD 5k in Calgary AB
July - High River Half, Half Marathon
August - Mud Hero 6k, Red Deer AB
August - Spartan Sprint, Calgary AB
August - Run or Dye 5k Airdrie AB
September - Subaru Olympic Triathlon, Banff AB
September - Talk like a pirate day half marathon, My home virtual race
September - Spartan Beast (23km) Sun Peaks BC

Yes that's a lot of races and some major accomplishments. It didn't start out that way but once I got rolling I kept going. Lol

So the nerd in me wanted to know the total distance I covered in my races alone and not including all the training I did on my own. So as of right now I went 275.46km just in race distances alone. Now I'm curious to know the distance in training but sadly I wasn't documenting it very well so can't get a true idea. I do know it was a lot with the triathlon training we did between the runs, swimming and cycling.

My body made some major changes as well. Since January I lost a total of 19lbs and a ton of inches (I wished I kept better track of the inches lost). I continue to gain muscle and I am slowly getting abs. I am always changing my diet and eliminating more processed high sugar foods out of it and adding in more fresh real food. My grocery shopping has changed as I shop around the store and hang out in the fresh stuff now.

It's been a fun and crazy year. A year of change for me in all areas of life. Here is to a much needed non racing break. I am looking forward to working out in my gym to just work out without a purpose or goal other then to keep heathy and keep getting stronger.

I will post the beast pics soon once I download them all.

Until next time...