6 more wakeups

This is the gang at Clearwater 06!

As we transferred sites my blog roll vanished! I will bring it back this week! I am very into you! Blogs are my daily news, my way to connect with people! If you'd like to be on it leave me a comment (I won't publish it) or shoot me an email. It's time to refresh the list anyways!

6 more wakeups.....

Actually five more wakeups until I hit the beach. Clearwater beach and Pier 60. The funny thing is when you walk out onto Pier 60 is that you have to pay a fee to walk all the way out. I will pay to walk all the way out.

At the end of every yoga class that I teach I read a meditation from a book, I have used this book for 5 years and it's in shambles. Yesterday's reading was about eternity. How the ocean reminds us of the eternity of the universe. Yes.... that's exactly it for me. I love the feeling of realizing I am a small part of a much bigger picture. We can be very focused on the small tasks in our lives, the details but when we step back and look around us we realize how small those really are.

Coming back to Clearwater is extremely important for me. Many of you have taken this year long journey with me and remember the head injury I sustained at Ironman Lake Placid in 2008, the 3 months of healing from that and during that healing the bike crash that left me unable to walk much less run for a few weeks. Those months were painful, they were difficult.

If you have ever suffered a head injury then you know. It's a takes one to know one kind of a feeling. I stood on Main Street in Placid last year and spoke to Joey and Travis yet I couldn't remember who they were. I have known Joey since 1999. I couldn't remember him. Travis, I have known him for years too. Nothing is more frightening than looking at someone and knowing you know them but not remembering them.

The simple task of getting my thoughts to my mouth. Curt didn't understand why I was so frustrated and I couldn't even say to him.... because I can't connect words and thoughts! Our neurologist friend thankfully was able to see that in me and cue Curt.

There are a lot of hidden things that you feel when you do suffer a grade 3 concussion. A lot you only understand if you have been through it. So my recovery from that was difficult.

After I crashed on the bike before Longhorn 70.3 it was like..... now what? Dr. Les cracked me, I rested, and we went into that race knowing that it would be a hard day. It was a hard day. My friends and travel mates Kim and Ken knew and thank God they were there. I feel like those 2 have seen this journey from the start.

It was Kim who stayed with me at Longhorn to see if I could get a rolldown spot to Clearwater. I was nervous, I can't believe it rolled down as far as it did. Holding that certificate in my hand gave me hope, something to shoot for, a way out of where I was. (Ken had gone back to the hotel because he fractured his C2. No we didn't know it at the time, but he's all healed!)

I had some other health issues that occured, but those aren't good topics for right now. Clearwater 2010 represented hope to me.

I took on the task of coaching myself and coached myself (through the flu nonetheless) to a horrible performance at New Orleans 70.3. Which led me to QT2 and to Jesse, the Wizard. I had sent four emails to the four coaches I really respected in the sport. Two were full, one was ridiculously priced, and the wizard: "I can help you." The words I needed to hear.

We took it very slowly, we still are taking things slowly. Each time we meet I am reminded that Clearwater is not the big goal. 2010 is the big goal and everything that we are doing is for long term development. He promised me I'd never vomit in a race again. So far, that's true.

We spent more time in endurance work than anything. Still have. That foundation is what we will build off of for 2010. For the first time in my life someone has been taking on my running form. Without my run analysis I am a much different looking runner than I have ever been. I am learning to correctly pace the bike. I am learning so so so much. The Wizard believes in my potential and my abilities and his visions for me have me toeing the line of my fifth Ironman in 2010. I remember saying I was done with the distance but he's ignited me once again.

As I travel back through the year I see the connections and the things that have happened to lead me to where I am right now.

You may remember encounter with a seriously emotionally disturbed athlete (in the form of an assault) at the Musselman. The negativity of that connected me with an entire community of amazing people, whom I am so proud and honored to call my friends. Now I am traveling to Clearwater with one of those friends.... who I wouldn't have met otherwise...... not only will we be racing together in Florida..... I am going to soon call her teammate.

This spring two people I knew tried to completely undermine my business with the reported goal of "taking down Mary Eggers" . What they did in turn was explode it. Which in turn has led me to take a pause in my graduate studies, focus on the business, bring on an assistant coach, run 2 more camps (for a total of 3) and prepare to raise my own bar for a business that is growing faster than I can keep up with.

Life has an amazing way of putting you right where you need to be at this very moment. Life has an amazing way of allowing things to happen which have the domino effect of bringing you to today. It's not all good things, you have to witness the evil and the worst side of people and of yourself, but you have to trust in the grand plan and the big picture.

Kind of like standing on Pier 60 and looking at the ocean. The never ending ocean. I can't wait to see it. My son always asks me if there is a waterfall where the ocean meets the sky. Maybe there is and we just don't know it. Maybe that's where all the churning's of your life fall off the edge of the earth. It's a great thought.

The most recent forecast for Clearwater is that towards the end of the week a tropical depression will bring some stormy weather. I couldn't believe my eyes. RAIN? I can't be so lucky. God can't love me that much.

If there is a weather condition that I race like a rockstar in..... it's rain. Give me rain and wind and I just might be your damn world champion (uh, yeah). The wetter the better. I might be the only person heading there who thinks rain and licks her lips. Does God love me that much?

We will have to see.