Colorado Relay

Running through the Rocky Mountains from Friday morning to Saturday morning really had an impact on my life. I cannot even begin to explain the feeling of running in the mountains at 2 a.m., just me, the Eagle river to my left, snow capped mountains to my right, a full moon and stars brighter than I've ever seen reflecting off of the river. All I could hear was my foot steps, and my mind telling me, "this is what life is all about."

The 174-mile Colorado Relay adventure started at 7 a.m. Friday morning in Georgetown. Runners 1-5 were in van A and runners 6-10 were in van B (my van). I was runner 9. After meeting in Morrison at 5 a.m. my van drove to exchange point 5 where our 6th runner would take the bracelet from runner 5. My first run was at about 4 p.m. in Breckenridge. It was about 6 miles and it was snowing and cold! I had a great run though and I felt really good. After our first legs we went to one of our teammembers parents house in Frisco and hung out. The house was amazing and we all drank hot chocolate, ate some food and took a nice nap. At around 10 it was time to drive to our next exchange point to meet the other runners again. My second run was the run I described earlier - about 12 miles on highway 6 around Eagle, CO. I was alone for most of the run and my iPod was out of battery, so it was just me and my footsteps. It was amazing. After our second legs we slept in the van at the next exchange poing until about 7:30 a.m. My third and final leg was about 6 miles on an uphill dirt road toward Carbondale. About halfway into the run a cow was standing in the road blocking my way! I had to wait for him to move over and let me pass because there was barbed wire on either side of the road. It was scary! We finished in about 27 hours in Carbondale and the weather was perfect.

But now it is back to Ironman training! I missed a long bike on Saturday because of the relay (it was worth it) so this weekend im in it for the long haul.

Home in a week :)

XOXO Cori

Hannah, Colorado Relay, VMA's

Hannah got spayed yesterday. I dropped her off around 7:30 in the morning and picked her back up at 4:30 in the afternoon. As soon as I got her home she started throwing up, and after the fourth time I called the emergency veterinary hospital to ask if this is normal. They told me to bring her in because it isn't normal. So after $411 for the spay, I had to pay another $180 for her emergency visit where they pumped her with fluids and antibiotics. Ugh, I am officially broke. But I would rather be broke and have Hannah alive, than Hannah be dead and I have money. This morning she is doing better, but is still pretty loopy. I got her to eat some turkey lunch meat and take a few licks of an ice cube. I am Hannah's personal nurse. :)

The Colorado Relay is coming up on Friday. I am meeting my team at 5 a.m. and we start the race at 7 a.m. We should be done running about 170 miles through the Rocky Mountains Saturday morning. I am very excited to meet my team and make some new friends! My left groin area still hurts from the bike crash at the 5430 half iron race, but I think it will be good to give it a break from biking and just concentrate on running this weekend. The race starts in Georgetown and ends in Carbondale, CO. My team is an all-woman team. Each team has 10 runners and I am runner 9. Each runner runs three times. For more information go to http://coloradorelay.com and check it out!

Each year I get really excited for the MTV Video Music Awards because I am a big dork and I follow all that celebrity stuff because I think it's fun. I was excited to watch this year because I love Rihanna and she was part of the opening act. Also, lots of crazy stuff always happens. I think I've watched the VMA's every year for the past 10 years I would say. However, this year was repulsive! The host Russell Brand, a British comedian, ruined the show for me as soon as he started talking! All he did was rip on President Bush, make fun of the Jonas Brother's purity rings and other things that I just couldn't believe! Believe me I am not a a republican and I don't wear a promise ring, but honestly, who approved that guys act? I think its awesome that some teenagers these days choose to wear a ring and not have sex until they are married, what is wrong with that? I also think it was wrong for a foreign comedian to make fun of our country's president at an award show in our country! Whether someone is republican, democrat, liberal or whatever, I'm sure people with any political view were offended by this guy making fun of our president like that. Booo I hate Russell Brand. Rihanna, though... awesome! Christina Aguilera too!

Well, it's off to the gym this morning and then taking care of Miss Hannah the rest of the day :)

XOXO
Cori

When life throws you curve balls

... try and hit them out of the park. That's what I have been telling myself this week. Lots of changes have been happening in my life, both at work and mentally.

First of all I am leaving my job personal training at Bladium for various reasons I wont write about on the internet, except that I am not a sales person. However, I love my job as a BCOR boot camp coach in Wash Park so everything will be OK.

I am also really, really excited to go home for one of my best friends from high school Danielle's wedding. I am going home September 25 and couldn't be happier. I miss everyone and everything in IL so much. I know that IL is where my heart is, and I have been thinking about that constantly lately.

This holiday weekend was great. On Friday I saw "Tropic Thunder" and it was ridiculously stupid. I hate those cheesy comedies! But it was ok because the restaurant, Cuisine of the Himilayas, made up for it. It's up in Evergreen and... awesome! On Saturday I was going to ride with the Laura and the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club, but when I got on the bike my groin was still bothering me a bit so I wanted to stick close to home in case I had to stop biking, so I biked for 4 hours and 15 minutes on my own and then ran 40 minutes. Everything went good and didn't feel too bad. I also ate at Chipotle twice this weekend, went out to breakfast on Sunday morning in Evergreen after an amazing 14 mile run and tried the Kolashe Factory today! Yum yum yum! haha a weekend of eating! Kolashes are like dinner rolls stuffed with eggs, cheese and whatever else they put in there. They are so yummy! I ate three of them!

On Thursday I met Jill, one of the girls I will be running the Colorado Relay with in two weeks, and we ran about 5 miles around Wash Park after boot camp. I am so excited for the relay and it sounds intense! It's all through the Rockies and ends by Aspen. I am the 9th runner and will run three times, just like the Ragnar Relay in Arizona. This time there will be less Cacti and more mountains!

Time to take Hannah to the lake!

XOXO
Cori

Steamboat Springs, etc.

Hello everyone! It's been about two weeks since my last post and I appologize. It was a rough and eventfull two weeks though. First of all, I got to see my family when they moved my sister out here about a week and a half ago. It was so good to see my parents! Although the weather wasn't great! It never rains in Denver and it rained all weekend, for three days straight! I ended up doing all my training indoors on Saturday. I rode the indoor bike while watching the Olympics for three hours and swam. I was glad the rain let up Sunday morning for a bit, so I was able to get a good two hour run in on the Cherry Creek trail.

Speaking of the Olympics, I am both sad and relieved they are over! I was definately staying up way too late every night watching swimming and gymnastics and honestly it almost killed me! I have to get up several mornings throughout the week at 5 a.m. to teach boot camp and I was staying up past midnight most of the nights before. It was rough, but who can resist watching Michael Phelps. I sure cant. I think the Olympics really got the best of me because I had a dream a couple nights ago that I won my age group at Ironman Arizona in November and got a slot at World Championships so I got to be on the Ellen DeGeneres show. In the dream Ellen asked me what my dream date would be and I told her "eating chocolate chip pancakes with Michael Phelps." haha what the heck? Either I really am craving chocolate chip pancakes or I've been watching too much Olympics and hearing Michael Phelps name too much! Then she brought him on the show and I asked him if he would eat chocolate chip pancakes with me. I have the wierdest dreams. I think it was because all the radio shows have been talking about lately is how much Michael Phelps eats. I swear, people are fascinated by how much the guy eats... and his body structure. I think every magazine I picked up last week had a full page spread of him with arrows pointing to all his abnormal body parts. Thank God he is not a girl because I would hate that haha! Talk about a self esteem crusher. "She has huge feet, short legs, huge hands, double jointed knees etc." Sill, though, it is hard to imagine someone 12 days older than me has accomplished so much! Thats awesome! Good thing MP has a great personality, is cute and is really fun to watch!

Anyway, after my sister got settled in her new apartment I took her to the pool with me. I hardly ever do stroke drills but the training program I'm using for Ironman says to do them. I guess my groin really didn't like the breast stroke because the next morning I couldn't even walk. It was such a bummer because I had a the Steamboat Springs Triathlon coming up on Sunday and it hurt to do all three sports! One of my clients told me I am the only person he knows that has injured themselves swimming, and I thought, yep, I don't know anyone either! haha! Good thing I felt OK by Saturday because the race directors wouldn't let me out of the race. I did a 40 minute run with Jane and George and it hurt, but I decided I could get through the race the next day. It ended up being a lot of fun and I'm really glad I did it. It was a shorter race (3/4 mile swim, 20 mile bike, and 4 mile run) and I am also thankful for that! I ended up getting 2nd in my age group and I beat the girl in 3rd by 20 minutes! Jane told me that I could have pinched a nerve when that guy crashed into me at the 5430 half, so I will have to keep resting it out and see what happens. Steamboat was beautiful and the weather was great. One piece of advice for everyone though... don't ride a motorcycle for 6 hours (what we did to get to Steamboat) because it SUCKS! My butt has never been in so much pain! Great idea Brian! I ended up paying someone to take my bike back to Boulder and hitched a ride with Jane and George back home instead of taking the motorcycle with Brian. Best decision I have ever made in my life!

The Colorado Relay is coming up next on my race list and that will be exciting! 200 miles of running through the Rockies with 10 girls. :)

Have a great day!

XOXO

Cori

5430 :(

So the 5430 race was, in one word, HORRIBLE! The worst part is that I had a bad race not because of my own fitness level and capabilities, but because of my goggles filling up with water and an idiot on the bike.

So here is what happened:

First of all my goggles filled up with water as soon as I started the swim. My swim ended up being 10 minutes slower than I could have swam because I had to stop 10 times to let the water out and re adjust my goggles.

THEN...

As I was completing my first loop of the bike course and approaching the intersection of Jay Rd and 51st a man came up from behind me to pass me on my left. There were volunteers yelling at us to go straight for our second loop, but obviously he did not hear them. Instead, as soon as he passed me he took a sharp right turn about two inches in front of me causing me to crash into him head on at about 22 mph. I went flying over my handlebars, skidding across the road on the left side of my body landing in the middle of the road unable to move. The man swerved and kept going straight to begin the second lap of the bike course and never stopped to see if I was ok. He was obviously confused about the course and thought we were all turning right at that intersection. Luckily, the firemen from the fire department located on that corner were there and they picked my bike and me up off of the road and out of traffic. It was very scary, as cars were driving toward me as I was sprawled out in the middle of the road and I am surprised no athletes behind me crashed into me as well. After the crash I could barely walk and I was unable to continue the race. The firemen bandaged me up and drove me and my bike back to the transition area where I proceeded to the medical tent for further attention.

Well.. at least I got to ride in a fire truck! Gosh, I was so disappointed. My bike is a little scratched up and I feel like I got run over by a truck today. After the race many athletes suggested I write the race directer an e-mail and tell him what happened and ask for a refund. Last night I did that, and I also gave him suggestions as to how he could make the race safer and better in the future.

In my opinion, the part of the race where I crashed was very dangerous. I think it would be better if they lined cones up in the middle of the lane, one side for people turning right that are done with their second lap, and one side on the left for people continuing straight and onto their second lap. I think this would solve some confusion that happened out there. I also think there were a lot of issues with how the waves were designed. I don't believe it is safe to start the slowest, oldest age groups first, and the fastest age groups last, as they seemed to be scheduled at the race. It would be a lot safer if the faster athletes, beginning with the men, started first and the slower athletes and women behind them. This would allow for a lot less passing and less potential accidents and injuries. I think safety is much more important than setting up the waves so that everyone is finished before a desired time. The whole time I was on the bike the men behind me would blow by me at very fast speeds, on the left AND on the RIGHT without warning. No matter what the USAT rules, we all know that rules were made to be broken and realistically many, many athletes do not follow them out there on the course and USAT officials cant be everywhere on the course at one time.

I am happy though that I decided to buy a charity spot for the Steamboat Springs triathlon in two weeks. It is a shorter race, which is fine, and it will give me a chance to redeem myself since I feel like crap for not finishing the last race. I have never DNF'd before and it wasn't even my fault.

Upcoming race, BCOR, grad school, lots of random stuff :)

Hi everyone! Well today I am using my computer again for the first time in FOREVER! Brian ordered a new hard drive, we stuck it in, and now I have a fresh computer (meaning I still lost everything I had, but don't have to spend $ I don't have on a new computer.) YAY!

So for the past couple weeks I have been keeping the training up so I can race the 5430 half Ironman in Boulder this Sunday. I hope I am recovered enough to race a good time and finish feeling fresh, as if I could continue on. Feeling this way at the finish line is great Ironman training both mentally and physically. Tomorrow I will drop Hannah off at Julie's house so she can babysit for the weekend and I can concentrate on the race. Then we'll head up to Boulder to stay with Jane and George for the night and then it's race time on Sunday! Wish me luck!

Last Sunday I participated in BCOR Fitness for Life training. I am going to start teaching a boot camp-type outdoor exercise class soon, and continue training to become a coach next week. I am SO excited!

I also submitted my online application to ASU's graduate program yesterday. Just in case we end up moving back to Arizona in November I want to be prepared. I loved being involved in the educational system in Phoenix, especially the Ahwatukee Foothills area, and am thrilled about the fact that I could someday be a part of it again. I still have to wait for the fingerprint clearance process, mail in my letters of recommendation and some other things for my application to be complete, but I should know if I am accepted around November as the deadline is October 15!

Hannah has been sick this week. She started sneezing on Monday when lightening struck the mountain by our apartment and our town filled with smoke. At first I thought it was because of the smoke but on Tuesday she threw up and started getting worse, so I took her to the vet on Wednesday. Now she is on antibiotics and special diet for an upper respiratory infection... my poor baby!

My parents and sister are leaving on Monday to drive my sister out to move here! I am excited for her to be here and can't wait to see my family!!!!!!!!! :) They should be here Tuesday or Wednesday.

I also took the Felt in for a makeover this week. Now she has pink grip tape, a pink seat and a pink bottle holder! They also fixed the derailers (hopefully) so my chain stops falling off. I am going to take it for a spin today just to make sure, but it gives me a lot more confidence when my bike is functioning properly, not to mention looking HOT! haha. The shops name is TREADS and I am a big fan! I recommend going there if you havent and you live in Colorado!

OK well it's time to finish watching the Today show, Michael Phelps and Ryan Lockte are supposed to be on which is exciting. The opening ceremony of the Olympics is today at 7:30 so guess what I'll be doing tonight... yep, watching it. After a little Olive Garden of course!

XOXO
Cori

AZ, Mountain Man, Broken Computer

I have not written in a couple weeks because my computer finally died :(
I am very upset because all my iTunes, photos and personal documents were saved on it. I guess I have learned my lesson to always back up my hard drive.

Last Thursday we left for Phoenix at around 5:40 p.m. We drove throught the night, taking the 70 West, through Moab, Flagstaff and Finally Phoenix. We arrived at Brian's dad's house around 5 a.m. Hannah was such a good road doggie and she hardly squeeled the whole way down. The drive was eventfull - filled with rain and stormy weather, and on my last driving shift I had to let Brian take back over because I was so tired I was worried I would fall asleep on the 17 between Flagstaff and Phoenix. All in all though, it was a nice, scenic, beautiful drive.

Of course it was hot in Phoenix. 110 I believe! On Friday after I took a nap I took Hannah to my old work, the Ahwatukee Foothills News, and showed her off to everyone! It was so fun! I ended up staying longer than I had planned and Brian was a little upset with me because we were late to our lunch at Pink Taco with Keith. Good thing Keith is such a nice guy and understood! Thanks Keith! There are SO many people in Phoenix. I have never noticed it before, but the Denver area is definately not as crowded as the Phoenix area. There were people everywhere in that hot a** oven!!! I couldn't believe it! After lunch, I went to visit Luanne at her condo in Tempe. It was so nice to be able to see her and her pregnant belly! :) Then we had dinner at Brian's mom's house and I brought Hannah over there as well. She was such a good girl! Saturday morning we had pancakes at Brian's dad's house with his little brother and cousins before we headed up to Flagstaff for the race. There were so many people at packet pick up at Lake Mary around 2 p.m. on Saturday when we arrived! We saw everyone we knew there! As soon as I got their I saw Keith in line with his cousins and Jorge and Laurie and Adam too! It was so fun and I think Hannah enjoyed meeting everyone too :)

Saturday night we ate at Olive Garden by our hotel with Adam. I had linguini with marinara sauce and salad and breadsticks... mmmmm!!!!! Then I rode my bike around the parking lots to make sure the chain wouldn't fall off. Luckily Adam fixed it for me and I was good to go! Thanks!!!

We got up on Sunday at 3:30 a.m.... early!!! I had my jelly and banana sandwich and packed everything up and we were outta there by 4:15. Setting up transition with Hannah in one hand and my bike and gigantic gear bag in the other was challenging until Laurie showed up to take her for me! Thanks Laurie! Without her I would have never even been able to do the race! At about 5:50 we walked over to the swim start. Now that was the toughest part of the race! The road was so rocky I thought my feet were going to fall off! The swim went fine, I swam 35 minutes, which is an improvement from my last half Ironman swim of 40 minutes. However, when I got into transition someone had thrown all my stuff everywhere and put a huge beach bag on top of my transition stuff! I had to search for my biking shoes, gels, sunglasses and helmet before I was off on the bike. I was pretty ticked off. I took the bike easy, it was a lot of hills and I just wanted to get through it so I had a good run. In the beginning of the bike I was with a guy who was riding the same bike as Brian, had the same Zipp wheels as Brian, was wearing the same top as Brian AND who's name was BRIAN! It was funny! When I left the transition area for the run (which again was annoying because someone had thrown my stuff around again and a gel was smooshed and open all over my running shoe) it was 3:49. I was going for a slower time than my last half! I was mad, so I took the run pretty hard. I ended up having a great run and crossed the finish line at 5:37 - EXACTLY the same time as my last half Ironman. However, the last race was 6,000 feet lower elevation and wasn't hilly at all, so over all it was a huge improvement and I am happy!

After I crossed the finish line it was pouring rain, so Brian and I got our awards (both first in our age groups) and packed up the car, got Hannah from Laurie and headed back up to Colorado! The drive was long and my legs were stiff... we arrived home around 1 in the morning on Monday. What a weekend!

Today Laura and I went biking around the foothills for about 3 1/2 hours and then did a 30 minute run. It was a good day and the weather was great! I really hope I am recovered and feeling good in 2 weeks for the 5430 race in Boulder!!! If not, I will take it slow and just have fun! It's all for Ironman training anyway!

So all in all, life is good right now. My sister moves out here August 12, that will be fun, and I start teaching boot camp down town in August as well. Things are starting to feel normal up here finally :)

XOXO
Cori