KONA – Keep On Nurturing Aspiration

To my fantastic sponsors, friends and family:

Thank you so much for all the relentless support and dedication in helping to set me up for success coming into the World Championships and for the entire season – I really am so very grateful.  Everything you all supported me with was absolutely perfect, appreciated, valued…and I could not of asked for anything more – THANK YOU FOR THAT LUXURY.

I have never been so mentally and physically prepared for a race and I was so looking forward to it! However, as we know in racing and in LIFE – obstacles happen…and though they can sting at times – we can prevail.

Coming 2nd out of the water – the race plan that Matt and I had put together was in tact…riding in the front pack with the talented Mary Beth, Leanda (CONGRATS world champ- elated for you!) and the fabulous Amy Marsh. I was feeling great, comfortable, grateful to be a part of the whole race and was thankful to be exactly in the position that we wanted to be in with those amazing +fantastic gals. As I was in 4th behind these ladies around mile 55 on the way up to Hawi…a (slower swimming but fast biking) pro male whisked by me far too closely and nipped me (placing no intended blame here of course – perhaps I could of held on tighter in the moment) in the very windy section and I went down and wacked my head on the pavement pretty hard. Got back up on my bike immediately – was determined to be un-phased by the quick crash but then spent the next 60 miles like a drunk cyclist swerving around – cross eyed, vision blurred, pounding deep headache ETC. Got back to T2 – started the run but was pulled pretty immediately to medical with a concussion.

Sidenote: Special thanks to many of the pro women who passed me on the way back to T2 with genuine concern for my well-being: Linsey, Bek, Cait, Rachel to name a few…and if I’m forgetting anyone in my haze and lack of memory out there, I apologize! More than anything, I’m thankful that I didn’t hurt anyone else in my demise.

The season has had its highs with 5 wins, a second and a third and it’s lows: a broken T9 vertebrae after a more serious bike crash 11 weeks ago – thus a brutal Vegas as a result and then the blip crash in Kona…so I was sort of thinking that the bad luck spell in three’s 🙂 was over in that capacity! With that said, having raced this sport for 12 years with virtually zero crashes and then experiencing these two in a short amount of time – I consider it part of my job description. I’m thankful to still be alive and kicking with minimal hiccups as such. I also am very aware and appreciative of the amazing people I have around me – great family, friends, colleagues, sponsors …AKA a great life…so my priorities are quite clear and this was just another blip. I know that win, lose or DNF…I have all of you in my corner and that feeling is the most priceless one in the world. I’m re-reminded again in every picture posted in these blogs – how lucky I am to have all of you in my life.

My race schedule will go on as planned with Ironman Arizona in a few weeks – and we added a little bonus race at Ironman Florida beforehand…have to let these Kona dogs out somehow – same goals….more fire in the belly! Kona will thankfully be there in years to come…in the mean time, we’ll Keep On Nurturing Aspiration of trying to toe the line there again with zero blips and a healthy day – something that is never to be taken lightly or for granted in this sport – I already look forward to it all.

Thanks again for everything!

MBK