2016: Year In Review

1st Light Marathon

2016: Year in Review

Like most out there I think I can say this has been a crazy, hectic year. There have certainly been ups and downs and a few all-arounds too! But we made it here, with just a few days left!

For us this year brought some calm to our racing, at least as far as distances. We took this year to explore new events and to really have fun.

We raced in 10 new events in 2016. All held new adventures and challenges. 

We had close to our best marathon at 1^st Light in Mobile, Alabama. The course was just right for us, some cold chills and wind and a few hills, but that day the stars aligned and we had a good race.   

Frogman

Frogman pre tornadoes

Unfortunately the weather would not be on my side when it came to the Frogman swim which for the first time was canceled this year. I guess when you wake up to tornado warnings and the strong gale force winds shut down bridges no one wants to go for a swim! We still got to meet some good people and be motivated by all that is sacrificed for us each day. This event while no race was involved really hit an emotional motivation for me.

Oh Yeah Patrick broke his foot.

We went on to race in Destin, Florida, for the Destin Bay, Bayou, and Back half marathon. This race while not the coldest we have ever raced was a good contender. I recall at one point going over the bridge I actually ended up drooling on myself as I didn’t realize the side of my face getting hit by the wind was basically frozen!

Heartland

The adventures continued with the Big Beach Half Marathon and the Crescent City Classic; both fun and friendly races with great after parties.

After the kicking off the year with running, we were ready for the opening of triathlon season. This year we raced six new triathlons (seven for Patrick when including this was his first Xterra). We raced Traditions in Mississippi, St. Anthony’s in Florida, Crawfishman in Lousiana, Heartland in Florida, Capital of Dreams in Alabama, and Storm the Fort in Tennessee. Turns out ALL of these places have HILLS!!! 

Patrick raced St. Anthony's with a broke foot- finishing in a boot!!! Plus the Fiesta 10K! This is tough until you consider that he broke his foot in the parking lot after a half marathon. Love him!

The Fort

Pre Storming

The most challenging and rewarding of our triathlons this year was Storm the Fort a small 70.3 in the middle of nowhere. The race held its own challenges with a looping swim, then uphill exits from transition and then more uphills followed by a few more uphills (but there was an AWESOME downhill too), the run too had more hills and was a double loops so you knew what was coming after the first time! With only a few people going the 70.3 distance it was also a lonely race. I like the silence and only brief passes with others, but for Patrick the solitude adds another challenge. Not that he talks much during racing but he is a people person and is energized and motivated just being around people. What made this race special though were the race staff and volunteers.  They stayed, with smiles, through it all, even the rain. They would rush from their trucks to hand us water and ask if we needed food or anything else. They would cheer as we passed through and then by transition. We know where we stand in a race, when there is no back of the pack in a small race we become the back of the pack, but they stayed out there cheering and keeping the finish line up. We were not trained up for this race, as I had been focusing on my swimming for the Lighthouse swim and was spending most days in the water not running or even biking. To top it off what made the race even cooler for me was that I placed in my age group and took home (well, had mailed to me) my cannon!!!!

Alligator Lighthouse

Post Alligator Kisses

After storming the fort, we headed down to the Keys for the Swim to Alligator Lighthouse. This was truly an adventure in place and emotions. After training all summer for this event I finished nowhere near where I wanted to be. I got sick and then more sick and then more sick- kind of like the hills of the sea it just kept coming! I was able to finish the event but found myself disappointed and frustrated, making motivation to train even harder to find. While it wasn’t what I wanted to have happen that day I have come to terms that it is what happened. I am choosing to take away from this event the fact I pushed through even when every part of me wanted to stop and when I was barely moving through the water. I am also focused on the overwhelming love and support from Patrick, sure he got moody with me a few times, but he never left me (for long) and he encouraged me to go when my body and mind and soul was yelling for me to stop and give up. This race will be on my radar again, someday.

Detroit with smiles

New races ending out our year  was the Detroit Free Press Marathon- OUR FIRST INTERNATIONAL RACE!!! This race was made more fun by being with friends who we had not seen in awhile and who laughed and supported us through the first half. We got to run in the unusual autumn heat wave that struck Michigan bringing with it rains that were not as heated!  We ran through Canada for the international portion. This race was difficult due to lack of training on our part, but again fun to be together and experiencing our surroundings.

Lots of woods time

Crawfish Man

In total we raced 30 times this year, racking up in racing and training miles-

442 Running Miles

607 Cycling Miles

191 Swimming Miles

We realized something very important too- while we CAN just go out and run the race training REALLY helped!!! I suspect we will be back on the training wagon in 2017 (although a little late to the start with our first marathon being in February).

Well 2016 with this we say our goodbyes.

2017- Welcome! Here we go again- 226 m/m!!!!  

Donation Site for Tampa Bay Frogman 2017

I am are continuing to raise money for the Navy Seal Foundation.  For more information please read this: Supporting the Navy Seal Foundation- Frogman Swim 

We've been blogging for a while now. If you enjoyed this one, you may enjoy others. Look though the Blog Archive on the right, for more of our experiences and random thoughts. 

Thank you for your ongoing support of our adventures.  
Please feel free to share our blog.

Traditions Carry On

Each year around this time our home is transformed into the Kebler elf house meets the postal sorting station. We bake and box, package and top (the wines). Within two days every dish in the kitchen has been used at least once and the packaging tape has been lost about fifteen times. As for us after all of this we are exhausted, our legs hurt from standing for countless hours, our backs hurt from bending and lifting, our bodies long for a soft bed. Some will ask (as they do of many things in my life) if this causes such pain and discomfort then why do it?
The answer is easy-- TRADITION. To me tradition isn't something you do because it has anyways been done, instead it is something you do because it holds meaning, and joy, and love at the core of why you do it. 
I was reminded what a joy traditions are as we delivered baked goods to our neighbors recently. One neighbor friend invited us in and as we noted we couldn't stay long he and his wife offered us a seat and began chatting about all sorts of things from the weather to vacations. But then my neighbor, he landed on a very special story. He spoke of when he was a young boy (as his wife notes, "before the war") and how in the Fall he would go out into the woods and search and search and search until he found what would be the perfect Christmas tree. He would tend to the tree and check in to ensure it was still there waiting for a special day. He would ask his mother each evening if it was time to get the tree. She would reply to him that it wasn't time, not yet. As he spoke you could see in his eyes he wasn't sitting in this living room, he was there at the apron of his mother, gleefully waiting for her permission. A smile came over his face as he looked to us and said, "then one day I would ask and she would say yes." He paused in this moment to hear her words once more. Then he proceeded to tell us of how he would rush to the woods to cut down the tree for Christmas. He would haul it home to set up in their window. They would decorate it with homemade items. He chuckled as he thought back on this moment, just then his wife interjected to ask what type of tree it was. He told he it was just an old pine. she noted there must not have been many branches to hang the ornaments. He laughed, replying, "That was fine, we didn't have many to hang." 

As we sat there laughing I began to think of what had brought us there that day- TRADITION. When I was a child my mother would bake at Christmas time. She made cookies and cakes for our teachers, the neighbors, friends, family, even the mailman. I remember that from Thanksgiving till Christmas break my brother and I would haul baked goods around the town, knocking on doors and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I remember watching people's faces light up as they wished us the same. 
I didn't understand when I was younger how much those days of watching my mother bake would change my life. Not just at the holiday season, she baked year round. it was normal in my house to have my dad ask about cookies or pie after dinner and if there weren't any made my mother would quickly go to work and it seemed that what takes me hours took her minutes to do. My mother would sing the whole time (she still does). Sometimes she sangs songs I knew and other time she just made things up, singing about birds, and fish, and children playing.
As a child I refused to bake, I even tried to refuse to go in the kitchen. But as I got older I found what my mother knew was nestled in our kitchen- peace. There in the kitchen the world makes sense, measure this, add it to that, mix it together. There are rules and measurements and all of it was in the control of the cook/baker/chef. But it was more than the rules. In the kitchen there was also adventure. Sure you could follow the rules or you could break free and explore flavors. But still rules and adventure are not what create traditions, there was something else in every kitchen- LOVE.  My mother didn't cook and bake simply to feed us and nurture our physical growth, she did these things, as she does, all things- LOVE. In each meal or cookie there was love. Her baking tradition wasn't because she had to, it wasn't because it was asked of her, it was simply because she loves all those around her. 

Growing up my family had many holiday traditions- driving to see the lights on Christmas Eve, hiding presents around the house, an elephant on the top of our tree, walking the beach on Christmas morning, but of the them all it is the baking I remember most vividly. I believe this is because it wasn't just about us, our family, it was about putting together bundles of love to brighten the holidays of others. There is nothing in a store or online that can be bought that fills a room with the joy that food brings, especially cookies. 
For me the tradition runs deep int he holiday season and each time I open my pantry to get out the sugar and flour. Traditions are formed when we aren't even looking, or when we think others are not paying attention (especially children), make sure to make those traditions a part of you and never let the world tell you to leave tradition at the door- unless you are dropping off cookies for later!!!   

Donation Site for Tampa Bay Frogman 2017

I am are continuing to raise money for the Navy Seal Foundation.  For more information please read this: Supporting the Navy Seal Foundation- Frogman Swim 

We've been blogging for a while now. If you enjoyed this one, you may enjoy others. Look though the Blog Archive on the right, for more of our experiences and random thoughts. 

Thank you for your ongoing support of our adventures.  
Please feel free to share our blog.