to HEALTH!

My bike is not only in New Orleans... it's built and waiting for me. Now I just need to arrive. Which I will in just 6 days. I love the travel this sport affords me. New places, new faces, old faces, gathering with really good people for a weekend.

It's like going to a family reunion.... except you don't mind the people there :-)

And in this family of triathlon.... since we are a family....... I believe that makes me related to Chris McCormick. Yeah HOOOO!

This year I have been incredibly lucky in terms of health. So lucky. I have not had a cough, runny nose, or form of illness since...... well since well before Ironman Lake Placid last July.

KNOCK ON WOOD. ALL OF YOU RIGHT NOW.

I have had a few days of random not feeling so well. And I realize I am seriously tempting fate by saying this aloud..... but if you know anything about what I have been through during the past year..... you then understand how having stayed healthy is so incredibly....... incredible.

As a Pediatric Emergency Nurse I work in the petri dish of all illnesses. 20 hours a week I am vomited, sneezed, coughed on. I take care of more strep throat cases in a week than you've ever had in your life. (I know.... this is an Emergency Dept..... but it isn't all blood and guts). I don't go one shift without seeing a fever.

Goes to show what exposure will do for you. You build up a naturally ridiculously strong immune system. Now believe me the first four years I worked in Pediatrics I took a ride on the Z Pack on a biweekly basis. I had strep throat so badly I required IV rehydration.

Pediatric Emergency Nurses, the ones who have been doing it for a while, have some of the best immune systems in the world. My unit happens to also be a really fit unit, nearly everyone ran the corporate challenge last year.

Some of my favorite residents from last year......

Working 20 hours a week in the Peds ED gives me a ton of flexibility and the luxury of creative scheduling to hoard vacation hours. I have been able to donate hours to friends who need it (if they are sick and run out of their own), and I have been able to roll it for about 10 years. As I was creating my schedule for the spring and summer I had a genius thought. Why not use some of it..... instead of cramming 20 hours into the beginning of the week this week, and then the end of the week next week so I don't have to use vacation for NO?

Why not...... use it?

My last clinical shift for 2 weeks was last evening. Every kid I took care of was vomiting. Every single one. They are actually my favorite because I will "Line and Lab" them (get an IV into them and get labs)....... "tank them up"...... (rehydrate them)..... and they are a new looking kid with the "3 P's"..... Pink..... Perky and tolerating PO.

Instant gratification for a nurse.

Yes you wash your hands incessantly, before and after contact with all patients. (and use great hand lotion). But you build up your immunity. So do your kids. I was never one of those moms who sanitized the shopping cart before Luc got into it, or use one of those fluffy things to cover it all. I let him get exposed. He's sick very infrequently. He's 8 and tends to have one good sick week per year. first ear infection.... this year.

When I came home last night I scrubbed myself from head to toe, lathered up in the best smelling lotion and crawled into bed to begin a great 8 night streak of great sleep. Vacation time taken.

Now between today and Friday just watch me get wicked sick. It'd serve me right!

One more brick workout today and the waiting begins. Yes, a lot of prep for a tune up. I am excited though. I am grateful. I am so grateful for my health. If you have ever lost it...I am not talkiing about being burned out overtrained sick, I am talking about really losing it...many of you know that I really did lose it last year.....just didn't blog about it......

So this race becomes a celebration of life. Of health. Of community. Mine, yours...... ours.

I can't wait to throw my arms in the air and cheer about it!