Well Folks! I'm surprised that you have stuck through this with me. It's been an eventful last year. In one week mayhem of epic proportions is going down! Let's give you all a little outline of where I stand so you know what to expect. I don't want anyone having any sort of medical complications from reading my blog. THE WARMUP: Thursday 8/20 I board a plane headed to none other than Birmingham Alabama for the USAT Age Group National Championships at the Olympic distance to be held in Tuscaloosa. On Saturday 8/22 I will have the chance to qualify for Sept. 2010 ITU World Championships which are to be held in Budapest, Hungary (Olympic distance). I've got to get top 18 in my age group for a guaranteed slot, roll down is to 25th place, but beware of the lessons learned last year. They must age up everyone and recalculate the results before they award slots...so really, I wont know until I've had time to geek it up and do this myself. My travelmates: PIC Michelle, Bethie, and Tyler, which means uber fun crazy crack-a-lackin kinda times.

THE MAIN SET: I arrive home on Sunday, spend 62 hours at home, give Annie big smooches and whisk Troy away to Penticton Canada, via Spokane. While Annie lives it up with her grandparents, the 17 hour training day crew, plus my parents will be drinking wine in Canada. NOOOO!! We will be a ball of type A nerves as we put the finishing touches on Ironman Canada prep. The bullhorn goes off on 8/30 and I'll be swimming (2.4 mi), riding (112 mi), and running (26.2 mi) with 2000 other folks who have been training all year, just to hear Steve King announce "You are an Ironman" (Steve King is back this year). There are Kona slots up for grabs, and you can bet that some 17 hour training day folks will be going hard in hopes of a slot. If any of the 17hour crew gets a Kona slot I'm booking a ticket to go. Can't miss that. Kona is 10/10 this year. After Ironman Troy and I will take a few days to unwind, visit some orchards, look for OgoPogo, and then we head back to Denver on Wednesday 9/2.

THE SPEED SET: You would think, whew, that's enough. But OH NO. Another 65 hours later I am boarding a plane to LA, and then after meeting up with my mom and dad, onto Brisbane, Australia. First time to OZ, yep-a-roonie. Troy and Annie will be holding down the fort in Denver, while SO MANY OF YOU OUT THERE have helped me get to ITU WORLD Age Group Championships. Although I leave Colorado Saturday 9/5, I arrive in OZ on Monday 9/7. It will be a fun filled week of triathloning with opening ceremonies, team USA pictures, training rides and runs with the official TEAM USA coach Steve Pye, who just HAPPENS to be my coach. We will be chilling with PIC Michelle, 17hr crewmate Anthony, PC chicka Laurie, spicy as hot sauce PC teammate Bethie, and all their respective families. On Saturday 9/12 I will step on the sand with the WORLDS best ladies in my age group to duke it out over the twisty, turny, spectator filled Olympic distance course. This race qualifies you for nothing, expect the title of "Kick Butt Triathlete".

THE COOLDOWN: On 9/14 I will drag myself back to Brisbane and pop myself onto a flight where I will most likely sleep the entire 19 hours back to LA. When I awake I will have the stupidest, lamest, happy grin all over my face. I will get off the plane and collapse into Troy's arms, look up at him and ask, "When do I get to do it all over again"?

Is the next month going to be challenging? Yes. Am I going to miss Annabelle and Troy? You bet cha. Do I feel insanely lucky to have even 1/10th of this opportunity? Humbly. I have received so much help from those who love me and those who are sick of me talking about triathlon. Everyone has patted me on the back and told me "You can do this". Yes, I can do this, but even more so, I will LOVE and APPRECIATE every single second of the experience.