JOY TOWN- asking for continued support

Like I promised, every month until my big race I am going to share a brief update on my support raising for my 1/2 IronMan 70.3 competition and I will include a story that I witnessed at Joy Town (the location where all the money is going!) and a brief update on my training. The good news is that it has been a GREAT month...both for support raising and for training! 



Memories from Joy Town...

The first time I went to Joy Town there were a lot of things that stood out to me. One of them was the way that physiotherapy is the highlight of the kids' days- all the kids have physio scheduled into their weekly routine and a bunch of them will be scheduled at the same time so they will make the long trek there together. It isn't a very far distance from the school room to the physio room but because all of the kids are physically handicapped and are in wheelchairs or use walkers, it takes a while for them to get there. Also, there aren't a lot of hills around the school property but the grade is steep enough to make it challenging for the kids using wheelchair and assistive devices. What's incredible is the way that the kids form a line and start pushing each other in whatever way possible. The kids with walkers will help push the kids in the wheelchairs and they'll keep helping eachother the whole way, even up the hills, until they reach the physio room. If you want to see the most inspirational type of teamwork then you have to see the way these kids help and support eachother everyday along this commute!

While in the Physio room at Joy Town I realized how blessed we are with the quality of our PT care here. There were at least 12 kids doing physio at one time- a lot of them were propped into an extension position (due to their medial conditions they are in flexion most of the day in their wheelchairs and etc) and coloring, one had actually fallen asleep. Since the school is so poorly funded they only have 4 physios and a couple assistants that are tasked with the job of seeing 300 kids all 2x/week for physio. The staff there are having an incredible impact on the kids and are dramatically changing the kids' abilities to move and function but just imagine how much more they could accomplish if they weren't so understaffed! My dream is that they would be able to staff at least two more physios so that there would be at least a 1 physio to 2 student ratio at all times.

 

 

Support raising- I've now been able to raise $1,019 for Bethany Kids at Joy Town with all of your generous donations! Thanks so much to all of you who have helped support me! My goal through the 1/2 IronMan campaign was to raise at least $1,000 to send to Bethany Kids in order that more lives can be changed there. I can't believe that I've already surpassed that goal within only two months. I really want to continue to raise more and more support because I can't wait to see the changes that they'll be able to make at Joy Town with all of the donations.  Please join me in this mission! 

Training- 2 months down, 2 more to go! I've been continuing to do smaller races with Athletes in Tandem. Every Wednesday night there is a triathlon series at Horsetooth Reservoir (which is the most beautiful part of Fort Collins and only a couple miles from me) so I have been doing that with them. Also, I have been doing some running races as well. It is really difficult to pull athletes on the bike and also to push with the run but I would have to say swimming is the easiest event to complete with them once you get started moving forward. One of the running races the guy that I was pushing (190 lb man- aka HARD WORK!) kept saying "Wo Wo Wo" and his friend told me that means "Go faster" which was an issue because I couldn't run any faster! haha I gave him all I could and we had a lot of fun together!

  I've also been able to complete an olympic distance triathlon (1 mile swim, 27 mile bike, 10k run) It went well and I finished in 2:35- I dropped 8 mins off my time from the first olympic tri I did in Iowa that I won 1st place at but here I got 8 out of 80! The race results show what stiff competition there is in Fort Collins/Boulder/Denver area! I wish I could go back to Iowa and compete at sea level because I know I would place better but I have to remind the competitive side of myself that it's not all about winning ; ) But training has been fun, for the most part, I have gotten caught in a couple rain showers/hail storms on my bike which hasn't been ideal.

Overall though I am honestly getting burnt out by training...it takes a LOT of time to weekly go on 50+ mile bikerides and run 12+. Most people say you need to at least train 15+ hrs a week which adds up and leaves your body feeling exhausted!

 

To wrap it up I want to say THANKS AGAIN to all of you for supporting me but more importantly my Kenyan friends. You have no idea how much it means to me and how much of an impact it will have on them!

 

If you are interested in supporting Bethany Kids at Joy Town the details are below:

 

I encourage you to support me for every mile of my half ironman race which is 70.3 total miles- 1.2 swim, 56 bike, 13.1 run! I am asking that you choose to donate a certain dollar amount for every mile I complete, 1 quarter would be $18.00, 2 quarters= $35.00, 3 quarters= $53.00, 1 dollar= $70.00. However, if you want to donate any other dollar amount that is fine as well.

If you are interested in donating then please send a check written out to Bethany Kids with Joy Town in the memo and send it to my address at 4408 John F Kennedy B302 Fort Collins, CO.