KONA – swim 2.4-miles, bike 112-miles, run 26.2-miles, sense of accomplishment forever! After 13 years of training long hours and racing 7 Ironman’s, I finally qualified for The Hawaii Ironman World Championship. So what makes a person push and endure beyond barriers? While I can’t speak for others, my road to KONA is built on hard work, perseverance, unimaginable loss and ultimately – Hope.

In October of 2001, I had to have back surgery for a herniated disk. During my 6-month recovery, I started to realize that I wanted to do a triathlon. This was going to be a challenge as while I had some experience on a bike and with swimming, I was not a runner…the essential third element of all triathlons. So with the okay from my doctor in January of 2002, I took on what was at that point, the biggest challenge of my life and completed an Olympic distance triathlon in April of 2002. With that single triathlon, I was hooked and over the next four years I completed numerous triathlons as well as two Ironman distance events.

While I wanted to continue racing, life, as it always does, got in the way and took center stage. As a few years went by and life settled down, I decided to get back into racing and signed up for Ironman Louisville in August of 2010. However, in June of that year, my world was forever turned on its axis as my precious daughter was in a fatal car accident. There were no goodbye’s, no I love you’s - she was just there one minute and gone the next. Nothing can prepare you for that – Nothing. I wanted to crawl into a deep dark hole and never come out but my family needed me and that hole wasn’t big enough for all of us. So I did the only thing that made sense at the time – I swam, biked and ran through the pain. I swam, biked and ran right into Ironman Louisville, but it wasn’t enough. I only made it halfway through the marathon and experienced my first (and only) DNF. Undeterred by that DNF, I set my sights on racing Ironman Louisville again. With a newfound determination and the unwavering support of my husband, I returned to Ironman Louisville that next year and finished the race – REDEMPTION!

As time went on, I realized that I had a lot of built up anger over the death of my daughter and I needed a healthy outlet to release it. So I made the decision to not only make racing triathlons my passion but become competitive in my age group. What I didn’t realize is that my goal to be competitive would turn into a way of honoring my daughter’s memory. I kept thinking of how proud she would be if I qualified for KONA. Qualifying for KONA became about "us." So on November 1, 2014, after countless hours in the pool, thousands of miles on the bike (with my husband riding right beside me), hundreds of miles running and 8 Ironman‘s, WE finally qualified for KONA. My daughter had been with me the entire qualifying race and she will be with me through KONA.

When my daughter died, I found a journal of hers which contained this quote: "Live each day to the fullest. Do not stop to wonder why. Do every thing your heart desires. In dreams reach for the sky." This is engraved on my daughter’s stone and before every race I visit with her and use her quote as my motivation – motivation that will be taking my daughter and I to KONA.