What I remember the most about the 2016 Paralympic Games road race is the hills. The road course consisted of three laps of the 15K time trial course before we headed out for a 30K-ish loop with grueling hills and a twisty descent. The race itself started out relatively calm. A couple of the women tried to attack before the three flat laps were completed, and one break stuck for less than a mile before it was pulled back somewhere along the third lap. Once we reached the end of the time ...
make that two-time paralympic bronze medalist
I thought the nerves wouldn’t be as bad for my time trial after earning my bronze medal in the 3K on the first day of competition. But this was the event I had spent the last two months exclusively focused on. I practically put my life on hold, foregoing school and work in order to dedicate my time and efforts to training. And now the day was finally here. Jen Schuble and I were taken to a hotel right by the start/finish late the night before. So while out of the routine I had developed at ...
the day i became a paralympic bronze medalist
I woke up on September 8th excited to race, to finally know where the training I had done put me. I didn’t focus on the 3K individual pursuit leading up to the games, but when I ran fast times at track camp the idea of a medal kept creeping in. I knew I had it in me. After coffee and breakfast, I let myself try and relax until it was time to leave. It would be a lie to say, I wasn’t a little nervous. But excitement won over as I got to the track, did a few openers on the track and then put my ...
thankful
It is my belief you can never overuse the words thank you. There is always something to be grateful for (it’s just more difficult to see and believe when times are hard). Today, I’m thankful for the generosity of others. When I made the roster for Rio, my first two thoughts were “here comes the hardest training of my life” and “time to make sure we can make the trip possible for Andrew.” When we got home from the Paralympic trials, I immediately took to exploring my options. I looked into the ...
giant fun @ giant bicycle’s demo day
I had the opportunity to attend Giant Bicycle‘s demo day at their Newbury Park Corporate Office this past Monday and check out their 2017 product. Andrew and I met up and carpooled with co-workers/friends early in the morning. We thought we’d just spend the day looking at all the new toys and gear and riding around in the parking lot for minutes at a time, so we opted to leave kits at home and just brought pedals, shoes and helmets. To our surprise, though, when we got there we found out ...