Digging Deep

When everything is going great your life seems fun and easy. You get up, you look forward to your day, you embrace it with optimism and enthusiasm, you sail through your routines, commitments, responsibilities and activities with ease and enjoyment. You’ve got a smile on your face, a song in your heart and pep to your step! Your conscious thoughts are focused on the fact that Life is Good! Those are the “Totally Awesome Days”! If our lives were perfect everyday would be like this, but that is not the reality in which we live.

The cruel reality is that not every day is perfect and some are so far from perfect that we cannot comprehend how we will get through them. These not so perfect days are the times when it can be so difficult to be grateful, joyous or keep the song going in our heart and the spirit of optimism in our attitude. Never the less they are the days that chisel out our character and make us who we are. Getting through those not so perfect days sometimes causes us to dig deep with in ourselves to call upon our inner strength and the character traits that define who we are.

The past couple of weeks I have found myself having to dig very deep to find motivation for many things. My energy stores have been so drained that even finding motivation to do simple household duties seemed to be overwhelming, let alone try to muster up the energy and motivation to fit in my 15 hours of Training for the week.

I have had to have a lot of talks with myself, digging deep inside me to find the strength I needed to make the hard choice to “start” a training session. I literally got tired of hearing myself say “come on Kathi, dig deep, you know it’s in there, dig deeper and find it”.

One day I was talking with my son Adam about “digging deep”. We were discussing what it means, what it takes, and what would cause someone to actually challenge them self in such a way. The next day Adam said to me “Mom, I know what it is that causes someone to dig deep, it’s DESIRE”. Then he asked me if I had a moment for him to read something to me. What follows is the poem that Adam wrote for me.

Desire
Oh what a desire
A curious, nefarious, singing thing
A no matter what the devil brings
A simply complex two faced sting
Burning o’er the pyre

Is it in the challenge
A dreary seldom seen time
A thought that all will be fine
A lust for poetic rhyme
Simply taking the plunge

Is it in the soul
A deep down tingling pain
A turgid wild hair to tame
A brief attempt to stave the rain
What is the end goal

Is it a feeling
A something made to perceive
A difference that does deceive
A prayer asking for reprieve
Floored to the ceiling

Oh this desire
A bring me back to life
A brief stiff wind at night
A Chance to see the light
A light from up higher

Desire

Thank you Adam for defining for me in such a positive way why I have chosen to "Dig Deep"

Defining Moments

Most of you locally who know me are aware of the Media Firestorm that attacked my family this past week. Although there was "a story" told it was not "The Story" (ie the truth)! Our little corner of the world was rocked and our hearts lay heavy.

I do not have the words to truely express to you how grateful we are and how much we appreciate all of your support, in the way of phone calls, cards, e-mails and personal visits that were filled with words of affirmation and validation of the honor and integrity of our family.

Although this past week has been very difficult it has been very defining to us regarding the value of Family and True Friends. I know that difficult times chisel out our character, define for us who we are, what we stand for and make us stronger. Never the less when the things closest to your heart are attacked it is very painful. For me that would be my family, and the foundational and core values that we have spent many years to build and define. It is this foundation that will come to your aid or fail you in times of trial, we feel very blessed that in the midst of the firestorm we drew strength and direction from one another.

Today as a family we have surrendered to the fact that Life isn't always fair and we are choosing to hold our heads high in confidence about who we are and the principles that define us. We are unified in not allowing people who do not know us and who do not share our same values to have any power over our lives!

Those of you who know us and love us know "The Story" without us even having to tell you and we love and appreciate you for that. The way you have rallied around us has blessed our lives and hugged our hearts and for that we are grateful.

Onward we go, with optimism and anticipation of the greater things that lie ahead! Taking comfort in realizing that we live in a Country that has become addicted to "Breaking News" and that this hurtful Media Storm will pass and one week, one month or one year from now, this story will not matter!

If I thought that the paper would print my editorial this is what I would write:

"I assume that you’ve heard of the recent occurrence at the Spokane County Assessor’s office. The case of a young man who applied for a position in the same office his father worked in. Nepotism and favoritism were common arguments against this hire. The outburst from the media and a very small percentage of the public cost this young man, Adam Best, his job. The question I pose to you is what kind of message does this send to our youth? We raise our children to shoot for the moon. We frequently state that anything is possible if you dream it. And, when one shining star does rise to the occasion and buys into our teachings we cut him down. We cut him down for the simple fact that he is a mere 23 years of age and that his father happens to work in the same office. It’s a wonder why Spokane loses such a large number of young, motivated, visionary and highly educated individuals to surrounding areas such as Seattle. They would rather brave the rain than a large number of skeptical and mediocre minds. Mediocrity surely does attack excellence. I applaud Mr. Baker’s decision to hire such a young and enthusiastic man fully knowing beforehand the consequences such a hire would bring. Perhaps this event will spurn Spokane to finally have a vision for our children. Then again, perhaps not. Regardless of the outcome, I extend a hearty thank you to Mr. Baker for his vision and professionalism."

Kathi Best

Spokane WA

Thirteen Things I Struggle with

Somethings come easier than others. Literally somethings come so easy that it is almost as natural as breathing. They appear to require little or no energy and appear at all times to be effortless. What a blessing that is!

Then there are the things that seem require your most intense focus and energy and even on your best day they present themselves as a challenge.

There are definatley things in my life that I struggle with that cost me energy and cause me to doubt my selfself in the areas of balance and function.

As I face the daily demands of juggling the time demands on my day, of family, career, training and friends, I am constantly evaluating everything in regards to value and energy expenditure.

I am aware that the areas where I feel inadequate or not up to date or not functional cost me the most energy expenditure.

Here are 13 things that I struggle with and feel I need to work on:

1) Finding inspiration to clean my house

2) Being attentive to long distance correspondence

3) Finding time to read

4) Learning to tell a short story

5) Being interested in details

6) Learning about technology

7) Reading instructions

8) Honoring the fact that the male brain wants the bottom line when communicating

9) Learning how to tell a short story

10) Overcoming the fear of going fast in or on anything

11) Being optimistic 100% of the time internally

12) Being patient

13) Believing I am worthy of success in every area of my life

I know life is a journey and that 80% of what happens in my life is effected by my attitude.

I am choosing to be open and honest so that I may become mighty in spirit and march on to experience victory over my self professed weakensses.

My journey to Ironman has caused me to dig deep and truely evaluate not only what drives me but what defeats me as well. Only by admitting my weaknesses can I triumph and become victorious!

"When you do not tire within but seek the sweet satisfaction of your life and your work, you are doing what you were meant to be doing." Gary Zukav

I "LOVE" Swimming

WoW! Did Kathi Best just say that?

Yes I did. I finally had an opportunity to use one of my Christmas gifts and it instantly transformed my feelings and attitude about swimming.

As I have shared before I use music to motivate myself to get started on all my run and cycle training sessions. I draw a lot of inspiration and energy from music. My journey to the pool however has always been a silent movie. I literally have to exercise all my will to drag my butt out the door and into the car, only to be bogged down by my haunting thoughts of dread!

For Christmas my son, Adam, set me up with equipment to be able to do my swim training sessions to music; what an awesome idea and an amazing gift to me.

H20 Audio makes waterproof headphones and a waterproof housing for iPod's. Adam got me an iPod shuffle and the waterproof technology to go with it. The speakers on the headset are designed for complete submersion and the sound quality is amazing.

The housing for the shuffle is waterproof down to 10 feet. Since the goal of a Triathlete swimmer is to be as hydrodynamic as possible, I doubt I will spend much time 10 feet underwater.

Music drives and motivates me and what a thrill it is for me now to be inspired for my swim training. I can only imagine how grateful I will be as I get into the longer distance swims that Ironman Distance requires. Thank you Adam, what a perfect gift for me.

Check it out at: www.h2oaudio.com

13 Hearfelt Thank You's!

There are 13 people who have blessed me and filled my cup to over flowing with meaningful words of encouragement and affirmation via comments on my Blog and to you I want to say a very Heartfelt Thank You! I appreciate you so much for taking the time and caring enough to bless my day and life.

1) Kim “Sisty Ugler” Ellis
2) Jessi “GG” Thompson
3) Roger “Coach” Thompson
4) Sam “Sammie” Picicci
5) Tim “Kris & Anna” Seppa
6) Linda “Adopted Mom” Salisbury
7) Patti “Gay” Evans
8) Josh “adopted but not really adopted son” Day
9) Rachael “FR True Friend” Michaels
10) Natalie “Nat” Gallagher
11) Sue “Starbucks Sue” Fegelman
12) Dave “my nice guy buddy” Lawrence
13) Farrell “Amy” Family

FYI: I LOVE YOU ALL

Countdown to Kathi's 1st Ironman

The official count down to my first Ironman Race has begun. As of January 1st 2007, there were officially 175 days until the gun goes off for the start of “Ironman Coeur d’ Alene 2007” and as I look forward and think about the magnitude of this race a smorgasbord of emotion wells up inside of me.

All at the same time there are feelings of excitement, of fear, anxiety, and anticipation, overwhelm, and nausea, adrenalin, and the looming thought of “ what in the heck was I thinking?” all which have their own physiological effect on my mental, physical and spiritual being.

I have loved watching Ironman races, and even more I have loved and been extremely inspired by cheering for others in Ironman races. Even though every time I attend one there is a desire deep down inside me that wants soooooo bad to be in the race. I have taken much comfort, in being able to say that “my race” was in the future! For some crazy reason, it was all exciting when I was able to say that my race was next year, or the year after, that sounded fun, exciting, comforting and not scary. Somewhat I’m sure in the same way that it is exciting to think about having a baby, and even if you are able to get excited about being pregnant and the process that entails, at some point along the way you are faced with the realization that you actually have to go through the long, intense, grueling, painful process of labor to get the reward!

Never the less, I am now faced with the fact that my race now has a date on the calendar of my life, I have paid my money, I have told countless people and the countdown to race day has begun for me.

Right now I am loving my training, this week I actually ran in the rain, in the snow and the freezing cold, I did a 1 hour and 45 minute swim that kicked my butt, I rode my trainer at home and did a 2 1/2 hour spin class back to back, followed by 30 minute treadmill run, and I truly loved it all. This is my 3rd season of triathlon training and the enjoyment of it has caused me to recognize a major milestone for me, because I have realized that the training, is no longer the scary part for me. This is very different from my feelings from the last 2 years. I have worked through a myriad of issues and I have successfully figured out how to work all the training hours into my life and feel like I am at a level of fitness where when my coach sends me a training schedule, I no longer look at it and think “what the heck, is he trying to kill me or what?” Instead I look at it with a sense of confidence and say bring it on, I am ready, I can do this. Even when he orders some tough interval work or speed test I am excited step up to the plate and take it on. And feel very inspired when my data shows improvement from all my hard work.

“The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work. Hard work is the price we must pay for success.”

Today leaves me with 168 days until the starting gun goes off for the biggest race of my life so far, Ironman Coeur d’ Alene 2007! At this point I want to be an Ironman Finisher so bad! But if I am totally honest there is this tiny voice inside me, I will call it “the fear of failure” that taunts me in my weakest moments saying, “what if you fail Kathi? You have put this goal out there in a very public way and what if you fail?” And the thought that I choose to send back to this voice of fear is: “I am in such awe of those who have gone before me and have finished this race, so much so that for me to even have the possibility of being able to call myself an Ironman, is a risk that I am willing to take, and because I know that I will never be able to suppress my internal desire to experience this race for myself.

Risk: “You cannot discover new ocean’s…unless you have the courage to loose sight of the shore!”

So I am going “to do it”! However it is with mixed emotions that I say: “Ironman Coeur d’ Alene, bring it on"! Bottom line, know that I am scared to death and excited with every part of my being, all at the same time. I know that sounds conflicting or like an oxymoron, but I think in this instance for me it is fitting.

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." --- Frank Herbert,

Working out -vs- Training

Ahhhhhhhhhh the JOYS of winter training!

It was not to many years ago that I use to blame the winter weather for why it was so hard if not impossible to keep in good shape and keep the weight off year round while living here in Spokane. I mean for at least 5 months out of the year its cold, wet, windy, snowy and plane crappy outside. I used to talk about how much easier it was to keep in shape when I lived in California where we had 300 days of sunshine every year! It seemed simple to me, that the bad weather was the reason I had packed on a couple of extra pounds every winter. That pretty much justified why I had put on an extra 25 pounds over the past 13 years. The weather prevented me from getting out to do my workouts! I so hate to be cold!

Then I had this great idea that I needed to run a Marathon, so I signed up with 3 other girlfriends for the Portland Marathon. We picked it because it was perfectly timed to avoid our local crappy winter weather. The Marathon was in October so we started running in the spring after the weather got nice and we were all ready for our October Marathon. It was a perfeact plan that worked. All 4 of us earned Finisher Shirts!! Victory was Sweet!

Then in the aftermath of my "Finish Line Euphoria" I had this great idea to collect Marathons! The next one I decided to do was the Las Vegas Marathon, sounded like fun to me and my family was excited about getting to go to Las Vegas in Januray and escaping our cold winter weather for a week. Opps, to do a Marathon in January anywhere it would mean that I would be putting in my long training runs in November and December, the middle of winter snowy, rainy, windy & some very cold crappy weather. Hmmmmmmmm What was I thinking???

This put me in a do or die situation. I was faced with either having to put in my long running miles before the race in the cold, rainy, snowy, windy and crappy weather or face the consequences of metaphorically dieing in the race!

This experience taught me some lessons that were instrumental in transforming my attitude in a critical way that would prepare me for what the World of Triathlon would demand of me!

So what did I learn?

1) I learned that there is a HUGE difference between "working out" and "training"! When you are working out it is easy to come up with 100's of excuses, especially weather, as to why it is o.k. to skip that work out, and that decision will go un-noticed by those around you and can take years to show up in a negative way on the body.

2) Training however is much different, it means you have committed to a race, it is on your schedule, it means that you have paid $ for that race, it means you have told people, it means that in your near future you will face the "starting line" and a "finish line" of that race and every mile in between will either reward you for the training you did or make you pay for what you did not do.

3) Winter weather is what you make of it... the 20/80 attitude rule applies here. 20% is what the weather dishes out to you and 80% is how you choose to react to it.

4) Proper clothing and equipment is key to your success in training..... I now have clothing that allows me to swim/cycle/run in most any kind of weather conditions, I even have snow studds for my running shoes!

5) Any weather condition presents it's own challenge.....I now choose to see it not only as a fun challenge to overcome but also as a fun and different training environment, and I enjoy how it breaks up the monotony of running or cycling the same routes or courses over and over.

6) I love to run in the rain and I can do it without getting cold and I know that I won't drown

7) I love to run in the snow, can also do it without getting cold and I know I won't freeze

8) I have a "trainer" for my bike and can now get all my cylcing hours in no matter what the weather

9) I have equipment to swim indoors or outdoors so no excuses here

10) Training is far more fun than working out and provides constant accountability which is motivating to me!!

As you stare the 2007 New Year in the face, if you find yourself having difficulty with coming up with a Resolution for yourself or you are struggling with staying active year round, I would encourage you to spend some time pondering the difference between "working out" & "training" for yourself. It will apply to any physical activity you choose to pursue! Trust me there are races, games, matches, and tournaments for every activity you could possible think of, so find your activity of interest and hold yourself accountable by getting a date on the calendar of your life. I promise it will inspire you!

p.s. I just paid $ for my first race registration for 2007, that's exactly what I need to continue to be motivated in my Training.....

What will you put your $ on????

13 Things I Invest in Everyday

1) The Emotional Tanks of my 3 Children

2) My Immune System

3) Relationships & Friendships

4) My 3 Childrens Self Esteem

5) My Marriage

6) Physical Fitness

7) Affirming those I Love and Care About

8) Functional Communication

9) Making my House a Home

10) Understanding my Brain & the Brains of those I Love

11) My Faith

12) Trying to live an Authentic Life

13) Myself - this is new & I am learning daily that I am worthy

My 1st Solo Headlamp Run

Today was my first full day back to work after a nice LOOOOOONG Thanksgiving Vacation. I took 10 days off and enjoyed the indulgence of down time, project time and some major quality family time.

Today my first client was at 7am and I worked non-stop through to 4:30pm with no lunch break. Paisley has private voice lessons in Indian Trail on Wednesdays @ 5pm. It was looking like I was not going to get my run in today before dark. However to my surprise, tonight Adam was home early and offered to take Paisley to her voice lesson for me so I could go do my run before dark and before we all shared a family dinner together. Awesome gift from Adam to me.

By the time I changed my clothes it was dark :o(

I never run at night by myself, I just don't think it is wise or safe for a female to run at dark alone. I had several valid reasons why I couldn't do my run tonight, especially the fact that it was already dark, also very icy and very cold. However this voice inside inside me was saying that an Ironman Triathlete would not validate any of my reasons, but rather they would look at my seemingly valid reasons as lame excuses. That changed my whole outlook and attitude regarding the task before me. As I watched my inside attitude, and motivation transform (because I long to be and Ironman) I actually got excited about donning my new headlamp, cold weather gear and hitting the icy streets of my neighborhood in the dark!

As I headed out the door, it was 19 degrees, clear and all the streets of my neighborhood were covered with a solid sheet of ice. I started my music inside the house to get myself pumped up, I put on my snow tracks (basically studded snow tires that fit over my running shoes) my snow hat and my new cool headlamp, gloves and my sub zero running jacket.

By the time I got out the door down my driveway I was excited about my run adventure. I ran for 51 minutes and had a blast. I was never cold, I was never afraid, and was all caught up in rocking out to some really good music. I really enjoyed the silent dialogue that my head lamp made with all the head lights of passing cars. Last year I totally learned to love to run in the snow, a fantastic treat if you have the gear appropriate for the temps and conditions.

My Frontal Right brain loves to try the new and different, so maybe this year my new favorite thing will be running in the dark with my new headlamp, even alone in the dark. This is a paradigm shift for me.

Tonight I am grateful and proud of myself for making a choice that allowed me to experience success in conquering a long time personal fear of darkness for myself. I have had the unfortunate experience in my life of being stalked before and have for years had significant fears and issues regarding being alone in the darkness. The feeling of accomplishment tonight is very empowering for me!

Victory is Sweet!!!!!!!!!

Kathi's 1st Solo Post

This post is A GIANT Thank You to my Blog support crew!!!!!!!!!!!

Some of you may not be aware that out of the 49 posts I have on my Blog, none of them have been personally "posted" by me. Oh yes, I have written the text and picked the photo's, which for my kindergarten level computer skill level is impressive enough, however the actual posting has been done by a "ghost team"! So now it is time to "come out" and give some thanks and major kuddo's to those who are so deserving.

Thank you to my "dear friend" and "sister of choice" and "Sisty Ugler", Kim Ellis who has posted nearly every post on my blog since the beginning. Taking hours of her own time to figure out how to even post a blog, and all for me, when I wasn't even interested in figuring it out for myself. I have shot countless e-mail and even more attached pictures in bits and pieces to Kim at all hours of the day and night and she always manages to put the puzzle together and create me a "blog post" that is beautiful. It has been like Christmas for me the past several months, as I run down early in the morning to see if my post that I sent to Kim in fragmented pieces, is put together and posted. It has been such a treat and a gift for me to see the color and artwork that she picked to go along with the theme I sent to her and she was always amazing at picking the perfect color or clip art to comunicate my feelings or mood. Kimmie, I love you and so appreciate all your, patience with me, your laborous hours of love that you have given unselfishly, generously & joyfully to my journey to Ironman. You even continued to post mine after you started your own blog. I am grateful and I want you to know how much of a gift you are to my life!

Thank you also to my "dear friend" and "sister of choice" and "GG", Jessi Thompson who was my initial inspiration to even start a Blog to journal my road to Ironman! And who generously gave of her own time to set up my origional Blog because I lack the skills to do it for myself. And who has not only pinch hit for Kim several times to post for me, but even created a few meaningful posts for me when I lacked the time or energy to creat one for myself, or lacked access to a computer, like when we were in Hawaii! And again what a gift and treat for me to actually wake up to a post, I didn't create and have it be exactly what I would have picked to say about that paticular event! And for being the one who finally made me sit down at the computer and said very lovingly and supportively, it is time you learn how to do this, let me teach you!What a gift it was for me to be the receipient of her gifted talent for teaching and have it be an uplifting, fun and confidence boosting experience for me. At 48 years of age I am just learning to not be afraid of the computer and Jessi has a special way of breaking it down, taking the fear and intimidation out and making it such a postive experience. Thank you GG for your patience with me, your loving and uplifiting instruction, and for not judging me for my lack of knowledge! Your investment in me was a gift!

And thank you to my "dear friend" and "husband of choice" Kevin for his patience with so many aspects of me having a blog:

*like all the extra hours I have spent on "his" computer

*like all my crazy requests for pictures with "his" digital camera

*like all the times he has come to my aide when I can't figure out how to do something

*like all the times he dropped everything to download

pictures from "his" digital camera because I needed them to

send to Kim for a post "now"

*like problem solving for me when I have pushed a wrong button and lost all my data

*like having A LOT of patience with me & putting up with my technological incompetence

Kevin I love you and am so grateful that God chose to give you to me. Of all the ways that you give to me, your support of literally "what ever I am crazy enough to pursue", is without question a huge love tank filler for me.

I am grateful that you are always my biggest fan, heartiest supporter, and most faithful encourager, even in my darkest hours of self doubt. You are the one when the "fear of failure" is attacking my self confidence and courage to go on, that embraces me and tells me that I can do it, that I am capable and that I am worthy of experiencing the success.

Your belief in me and your words of affirmation at all times of my journey are gifts to my heart and soul. I like myself better because of you and I am grateful for the love and support that you so unselfishly and so consistently bestow upon me. Thank You I love you with all my heart!

Posted proudly by Kathi Best with gratefulness to all who helped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most Photogenic

You see we have this 15 year old daughter (Paisley) who has this funny habit of taking her own picture with Kevin's digital camera. And then some times she takes several pictures, especailly if she just got new clothes or is she just discovered a new hairdo! Kevin is the photographer in the family, so he has this really nice camera, he is always taking pictures everywhere we go. I can't even count the times that we have been running out the door grabbed the camera, gotten to our event and Kevin starts taking pictures only to realize there is only enough disc space to take 2 pictures because "someone" has taken a bunch of pictures of herself. Or my favorite is when we went to the Medical Lake Triathlon to cheer for Kim and take pictures for her and Kevin pulls his camera out to start taking photos and the disc is full. Seems that "someone" had taken 69 pictures of herself the night before. Thought you might like to see a couple examples of her work!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things I am Thankful for



1) That I am saved by Grace

2) My husband Kevin

3) My 23 year old Son Adam

4) My 20 year old Son Noah

5) My 15 year old Daughter Paisley

6) The fact that we all have a great relationship

7) Triathlon & Tri-Fusion

8) A Career that matches who I am

9) True Friendships

10) My Sister Patti Gay :o) Love you sis!

11) A 29 year marriage that is in the "Mature Love" Phase

12) Vibrant Health

13) That Ralph Baker got re-elected as Assessor

Thursday Thirteen 11/16/2006

13 Things that bring me JOY! 1. My 3 children, Adam, Noah & Paisley 2. Laughter of all kinds 3. Watching Adam & Noah play soccer 4. Quality Time with people I Love 5. Listening to Noah play guitar & piano 6. Giving to others in ways that Bless their day 7. Meaningful & Genuine Conversations 8. Watching Paisley Dance & Listening to her Sing 9. True Friendships 10. Being Inspired 11. Receiving Words of Affirmation 12. Sunshine & Blue skies 13. Being actively involved in the world of Triathlon

Starbuck's swim 11/12/2006

On Sunday I racked up 2 1/2 hours of swimming time. Roger, Jessi, Kevin, Jennifer and I swam for1 1/2 hours at our Starbuck's swim. Then Jessi and I swam for another hour at a triathlete stroke improvement class at Whitworth College.

Jessi and I paid $50 to take a 6 week class, taught by the Whitworth College Assistant Swim Team Coach, designed to help triathletes improve their swim technique. The first week we were excited with anticipation of what we would learn and by the end of class we had our confidence boosted big time by realizing how much we already knew and recognizing that we were definitely the 2 best swimmers in the class. Wow, it is totally amazing to hear myself say that after a very long 2 year journey with a myriad of challenges to overcome with my swimming and underwater issues!
After the second week we were disenchanted with our Whitworth class and we both realized that we were not going to gain much of anything new from this class.
We both admitted that we had learned so much more from Roger, in regards to stroke improvement at our Starbuck's Swim in the morning than we did from our triathlete class we paid for. Once again this make me realize one of the significant benefits of being in a Club like Tri-Fusion with World Ranked Athletes who are so willing to share what they know with other Club Members.
Some of my favorite highlights of this past Sunday’s Starbuck's Swim were definitely the fellowship and coffee at Starbucks before the swim. Roger’s positive critique and personal swim technique instruction for each of us. Jessi taking pictures of us swimming, it was awesome to see what we actually looked like, since it is a little hard to see yourself in action when you are swimming, and also seeing Kevin really get into learning how to analyze effective and not so effective swim technique in everyone’s strokes with Roger. I learned a lot today and the pictures were a great visual learning tool for me.

My first TriFusion headlamp run!

This was no doubt the MOST FUN I have ever had on a run. I had the worst cramp the whole time, but it wasn’t from improper breathing technique, it was from laughing so hard that I couldn’t breathe!
To start with we all met at Kirk Wood-Gaines home, where we had the pleasure of meeting his wife Susan for the first time. Roger let Kevin and I borrow two of his headlamp’s (picture above) since he was injured and would not be able to run with us. We all bundled up and headed out the door about 7:15pm for a 10 k run. It was dark, about 34 degrees and so foggy that it was difficult to see the edge of the paved road and literally impossible to see more than about 20 feet in front of you.
We all (Sam, Kurt, Jessi, Kathi, Natalie, Kevin, & Jennifer, (Kirk was suffering from the aftermath of food poisoning and Roger was nursing his twice sprained ankle) started out in a pack, we were huddling together trying to keep warm. About a half mile into the run Sam says, hey did anyone hear the News tonight? We all said no, so Sam proceeds to tell us that on Channel 2 News they reported that they found a dead body the previous night, on the very same road that we were running on! We are all like, Sam are you being serious?? And Sam is like yes, they said 2 guys beat him up and left him for dead, wrapped around a tree and stole his car. All of us girls freaked out and start talking about how we should stick together, and how each one of us would never go running on this road at night alone, on how we hate scary movies and bad guys etc.

Suddenly Sam starts running around like a mad man screaming into the bushes, yelling out to the bad guys and daring them to come out and how if they did he would kick their butts, we were laughing so hard as he was running around acting like a gorilla. Suddenly Sam surges ahead of us all and as he bolts ahead, we figured he was doing some kind of interval work (over achiever) or something? Anyway it wasn’t long before his cute buns disappeared into the fog ahead of us.

We continued to run and talk as a pack, getting warmed up and settling into a pace that worked for the entire group (except Sam). We were listening to a story from Natalie, listening intently, trying to hear every word over our own heavy breathing, concentrating on not missing a single detail. Simultaneously we all blurt out blood curdling screams, as Sammie jumps out from the darkness of the bushes screaming like a mad man. We stopped dead in our tracks to catch our breath that fright took away and then we start yelling and laughing and yelling and laughing some more; Sam you bleep, Ha Ha, bleep bleep you Sam, Ha Ha, bleep, laugh bleep bleep!!!!! As this drama echoed out into the darkness, we couldn’t help but be afraid of what else lurked out there. We were on guard and on alert for the slightest sound that wasn’t part of our group.

About the time we had all recovered and regained our breath and running rhythm, we see car head lights coming up behind us, as we moved to the side of the road to let the car go buy, we recognized that it’s Roger in his Subaru. With his car headlights behind us we have significantly better forward visibility, so he followed slowly behind us to light the way, it was great to have this helpful and attentive support. Roger followed us all the way to the turn around, where we thought we might meet up with Sam, but didn’t so we figured he went across the bridge to get in some extra miles in with his Seattle Marathon coming up.

On the way back Nat, Jessi and I got separated from the rest of the group and we had this creative genius thought to pay Sam back for scaring us so badly. We searched out the perfect spot to hide in the bushes, and the three of us got down on the ground like an Army Soldier in the trenches and waited quietly until Sam ran buy. As he approached, we were holding back our giggles and covering our mouths to muffle our heavy breathing. Here Sam comes and I am like wait girls, lets wait for the perfect time, here he comes, the tension is building inside us, oh my gosh, here he comes, he is right in front of us but, waaaaait…… we were going to wait until he got just passed us and then we would jump out and scare him, our hearts are racing! As Sam runs directly in front of us, we are about ready to explode with anticipation of the surprise attack and suddenly Sam turns his head lamp and shines it right on us and yells Booooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Wow aren’t you scary!!!! We screemed, laughed and then felt slightly disappointed that our sneak attack backfired on us but we quickly joined him back on the run.
Roger decides to come up along side of us in the Subaru (I think it was killing him not to be running with us) instead of following from behind, and he rolls down all his windows and opens his back tailgate and blasts his music from the car. We are laughing and singing and thinking it should be illegal to have this much fun while running. What a hoot, there were actually several neighbors that came out on their front porches to see what the commotion was and we are like, Hey, this is Tri-Fusion Support baby!!!!!!!!! WhooooooooAhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now cruising back, getting into the music and some amazing conversation with ourselves and with Roger, laughing at the reactions of the various neighbors, rocking out to good tunes, enjoying the fun of the run. Roaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!! When we were least expecting it Sammie comes up from behind us and truly scared the poop out of us, again!! Jessi literally went to the ground, as she was gasping for breath from laughing, screeming and yelling at Sam all at the same time!!!! It was Hilarious!!!!! I think Sammie even scared Roger, I saw Rog swerve the car and regain control just before he went into the ditch!!!!!

We were now about ½ mile from Kirks house and when we finish the run we were invited to go inside to warm up and commiserate a bit. Thanks to Kirks wife Susan and his adorable daughter Anna we enjoy some post run fluids and Pretzels, those pretzels tasted sooooo good!

Thursday nights are typically a family night for the Best’s, however both kids had plans this night and so we decided to participate in the run. What an awesome memory for Kevin and I with part of our Tri-Fusion friends. We will look forward to our next open Thursday, you can be sure it will be spent at least in part doing the Tri-Fusion Headlamp run!!!!!! This group event is a great tradition, thank you to Kirk and Susan Wood-Gains for hosting and opening their home.

P.S. My sweet husband surprised me the next day by purchasing us our own headlamps. These are so cool, I look forward to the next opportunity to turn mine on!!!!!!

Saturday Tri-Fusion Ride

WoW!! We had quite an action packed and eventful ride this morning! The temperature was 45 degrees and the roads were wet from rain all night and early morning, but it did not rain while we were riding. Sam started out 2 hours earlier than the rest of us at 7am and we ended up coming to his aide after he crashed on the same railroad tracks that I did several weeks ago!!!! I got a chance to take a peak at his road rash, OUCH!! But being the Italian Stallion that Sam is he met us at our starting point and continued our ride with us road rash and all, crazy but inspiring!!

Roger, Jessi, Sam, Kevin and I headed out Farwell to Market, where Sam’s friend Rick joined up with us and we all headed out Peone. There is a set of railroad tracks at the crest of a hill where I almost got taken out by a Dump Truck as it skidded sideways coming up over the hill too fast and didn’t see that 3 cars on the other side of the hill had come to a complete stop. I heard loud screeching tires and the dump truck literally started skidding sideways right into my lane, for a second I thought I was going to be hit, it definitely made my heart rate spike a bit!!

We followed Peone to Mt. Spokane and then went out to do the Greenbluff loop, here Sam split off and headed for home. I am sure Sam is going to be very sore tomorrow, sorry Sam!!

We were ½ way around the rolling hills of the Greenbluff loop and we met up with Greg, he was in the middle of a scheduled 4 hour ride, it was fun to ride with him for a while.

Eventually Jessi, Kevin and I split off from Roger and Greg, they continued on and we headed for home, Jessi decided she had, had enough of her “new” saddle and Kevin and I had a “couples massage” to get ready for. About 15 minutes from home, something didn’t sound right on my bike and I realized that my front tire was flat. So Kevin and Jessi graciously stopped with me while I changed my first “front tire flat”!! A bit more challenging in the cold weather, the rubber is not quite as easy to stretch.

While inspecting my tire I found a piece of glass in my tire, I removed the glass.

After I replaced the tube, inflated it with CO2, we were on our way. I was thankful for my blue tire changing tools, and it was good experience for my confidence.

All in all it was an awesome ride, the weather was perfect, we all stopped to take off layers. The foliage along the course was so beautiful and the cloud formations were pieces of art. A great ride, with great people, doesn’t get any better than that.

Thursday 11/02/2006

Thirteen things I dislike about Elections 1) All the TV adds on every channel all day long 2) All the campaign signs distracting from the beauty of nature 3) Having to vote by mail 4) Computerized phone messages regarding candidates 5) The spread of misguided information 6) E-mail messages regarding candidates 7) Ferociousness & animosity between Democrats and Republicans 8) Candidates talking trash about their opponents 9) Lies being spread about candidates 10) Uncertainty of my vote actually being counted 11) The way the Spokesman Review mis-represents certain candidates 12) Potential manipulation mail in ballots invite 13) The fact that “Election Day” has now turned into “Election Two Weeks”

Happy Halloween 2006

At the Best house we love to give out the “BIG” candy bars and we all get a major kick out of watching all the cool, sweet and funny reactions of the kids when they see “the BIG bar”!!!!!!

We conducted our own Trick or Treater costume contest and I thought you might like to see the top three winners for this year……………

Third Place Winners: The Douglass clan

Second Place Winners: Neighborhood girls

First Place Winner: Emma Seppa Thompson as Eyore

You might think its corny but it really is a JOY thing for the Best Family and we think a fun way to see Halloween in a positive light………………..

Sunday Starbucks Swim 10-29-06

Today was one of my favorite Starbucks swims! Maybe it was because my Frontal Right brain loves change or maybe because I learned some techniques to improve my swim.


Today we met at the New Starbuck’s at Wandermere. We had a small group today, Kevin, me, Roger, Jessi and Natalie. We were enjoying our coffee and conversation as we watched it raining outside and were thankful that for the first time of the season our swim was going to be inside.


Because we live in a region with 4 distinct seasons, to train for Triathlon year round requires lots of changes of venues and clothing. Two weeks ago we were braving the freezing waters of Medical Lake and last week we were doing our Starbucks swim in the beautiful tropical waters of Hawaii and now this week, with rain and 34 degree temperatures our traditional Sunday morning Starbuck’s swim moved inside where we took over the 24 hour Fitness pool.

Kevin and I had to run home to get his Polar Watch after Starbucks so we were the last ones to arrive at 24 hour Fitness. By the time Kevin and I checked in at the desk, the guy working the desk says: “o.k. I have to ask, what is with all these cool jackets?” I immediately spin around so he can see the back Logo and Kevin tells him it is a new Triathlon Club that is launching Nov. 8th!! And he says wow, that sounds really great and we are like Ya it is!

We had 2 lanes to ourselves and all jumped in and started our workouts. The pool temperature was perfect. We did our warm ups, our drills, our base sets and then it started. I saw Jessi ask Roger one question and all of the sudden the next hour was filled with incredible instruction.

We were all excited and were lining up anxiously to have Roger watch us swim and give us a constructive critique. It was awesome, and another reminder to me of how cool it is going to be when our club Tri-Fusion gets launched and we have all these group activities. We will not only be blessed having the fellowship of others who love Triathlon but the benefit of having others with much more experience than ourselves willing to offering instruction, helpful training tips and valuable wisdom.

Thank you Roger, that instruction was the highlight of my Starbucks swim today!!!!!!!!!

Hard Core Cycling

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! Today was my first “COLD” weather bike ride. Our Tri-Fusion Club President, Roger Thompson, extended an invitation to the Board of Directors (Tri-Fusion is a Triathlon Club that we have spent the last several months forming and will officially launch on November 8th.) to join him on his first “easy” recovery ride since his Ironman World Championships Finish in Kona, Hawaii last Saturday. Roger challenged some of us girls and oldies to join him saying this would be a great opportunity to actually be able to ride with him and stay together as a group. Kevin and I took the bait. Sounded like fun to us.

The ride was to take place at 8am Saturday morning, we were to meet at the Fairwood shopping center just off of Hastings and the ride would be 2 hours long. Kevin and I got our winter clothes boxes out and decided to lay our clothes out Friday night. Saturday morning when we arose, the temperature on our front porch thermometer read 32 degrees!!! We both started getting out another layer of clothing from our boxes. Kevin brilliantly says to me “Honey, today is the day that we discover what kind of gear we really need to ride in these conditions!”

Kevin and I got dressed in the first layer, loaded up the van and drove to Fairwood, which is only ¾ of a mile from our house, but we wanted to be able to take the camera for pictures, so we drove. Everyone was there and they were all putting on their many layers. Among us all we had every kind of warm cover they make from, gloves, shoe covers, skull caps, beanies, neck warmers, face protectors, leg warmers, arm warmers, etc.By 8:30am we were riding away from our parking lot. We would be riding out Peone Road to Mt Spokane. It was now 34 degrees and foggy outside, not sure what temperature it was for our bodies if you figure out the wind chill factor at 15 to 20 mph. All I know is, that I was so cold the first 30 minutes of the ride I considered turning back several times. The moisture from the fog was freezing on my glasses so I had to take those off. My feet and hands were freezing. My fingers were so cold and numb they were burning. I was literally afraid of frost bite and Kevin and I had an 11:30am couples massage scheduled!! So, for the first 30 minutes I rode with one hand and rotated placing one of my hands in the pocket on my cycling jacket to get it next to my body for warmth. Jessi actually suggested that I increase my effort to try to get my heart rate higher to help get my blood pumping through my extremities. So I decided to go to the front with Sam and step it up, and it worked!!!! Now I wouldn’t say that I felt warm by any means but I got rid of the burning and aching and no longer felt in fear of frostbite!!!!!!!

When we got far enough out Mt Spokane Road we broke out of the fog into some sun and I was happy that I had gone on the ride. Today I discovered another benefit to the Tri-Fusion Club, not only is there power (energy, motivation etc.) in numbers; there is fun in numbers. I can assure you that if I had gone on that ride today alone, there is no doubt in my mind that I would have turned around in the first 15 minutes and been back home in the comfort of my warm house.

Tri-Fusion Rocks, I love you guys and gals and look forward to making more “hard core” memories this winter.