Flagstaff, AZ

So here I am...it's the last afternoon in my rented Flagstaff, AZ apartment. I am lamenting on the great month I had here. I am headed back to Phoenix...100+ temperatures tomorrow for the remainder the summer.

This month I realized....

1) I love road riding way more than mountain bike riding. I did 17 rides in 30 days and 1 was a mountain bike ride. Now why do I own a beautiful full suspension bike? I am seriously asking myself that question right now.

2) My friends are so much fun. I already knew that but they train and play hard, are kind, funny and genuine.

3) I am self-sufficient. I like being an independent women who takes chances and most of the time lands with both feet on the ground.

4) I am six weeks post second time stress fracture on my big toe and am cleared to start running again. I resisted the temptation to try running and it worked. My half-marathon training program with the Sun Sistas begins in August and I am ready.

5) Flagstaff is a super cool place, full of nice (yet random and mostly high) people and great outdoor offerings.

6) Fourth of July is my favorite holiday....still.

7) Rainbows are so cool

Flagstaff AZ....I'll be back next summer.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda

Why you should care....

So here is my first post.

I am to introduce myself, my cause, and give you a reason to want to read my blog. My name is Amanda and I am a 35 year young woman currently residing in Scottsdale, Arizona. Vocation.....I have been in the Spa industry since college, but recently made a move to work for a mentor of mine. The company is Tara Spa Therapy and we sell and provide Aromatherapy and Ayurvedic treatments and education for Spa's around the world. Our products I am proud to say are organic and environmentally friendly. I work from home but get to travel to my amazing accounts.

My family is on the East Coast, and I am on the West. I am trying to establish myself in many ways....navigating the best way I can through this amazing journey called life. I can't say that I am a great writer, but I aim to get better and have always read and journaled. Now, I will be doing this on-line....with people actually reading my posts...scary!

I have always been active...partly because I am so antsy and have to get out of my head, and also b/c I love the feeling of being healthy and athletic. I am a yoga teacher and have practiced for 11 years. I mostly practice and teach Bikram Yoga, but I love all Yoga. Since I moved to Arizona almost three years ago I have started training and competing in Triathlons. Both my father and step-father were triathletes and runners (step-dad still is running God bless him) and I have done a few races prior with my step-dad, but never a Triathlon. Since May of 2009 I have done 4 Sprint Tri's and 3 Olympic's. The feeling after every event is always different, but at the same time, always a great feeling of accomplishment.

I have met some of my greatest friends training and competing in these events. I feel very blessed that my life has taken me to this place. So, in this group of wacky, fun, sincere, hard-working triathletes I met Krista LaPan. She is like a soul sister to me. And after I begged her to do my first 1/2 Ironman with me (she is getting ready to do her 3rd Ironman in Canada with her husband in one month) in California, she took the opportunity to flip the script and ask me to do a full with her and her husband three months after Oceanside. We are registered and will be competing in the Coeur D'Alene Ironman on June 28, 2011. I am in over my head, but will love and hate it all at the same time. At least they will be there to support me as they have done this race two times prior.

So in order to not seem completely absorbed, and to find a true meaning for me in this huge adventure of training that is soon to begin, I have decided to put a cause to my events. I will be fundraising for Multiple Myeloma.

Why Multiple Myeloma....my mom. My mother, Patty McCarthy-Donaldson passed away in June of 1999 when she was only 52 from MM. This cancer, especially 11 years ago was downright nasty. In short, MM causes the large bones of the body to break as the blood becomes to thick. The treatments were nill when my mom was sick, and clinical trials were just starting. She suffered tremendously, as did those who loved her. She was sick for about four years total. Now plenty of people live and function with this disease, but there is no cure, just treatment options. My goal is to raise as much awareness and money as I can while I train for these two events in her memory. Her birthday was April 18th, two weeks after the 1/2 Ironman in Oceanside, CA and her passing was June 17, less than two weeks before the full Ironman in Coeur D'Alene.

I will be completing a memory page soon that will have all the fundraising details for MM. I am proud to say that MM gives 93% of all donations directly to the research and one day cure of this disease.

I will be blogging how this process of fundraising is going, my training and how that is going, health and nutrition tidbits and other random week to week adventures.

They say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Thanks for reading....until next time.

XOXO

Amanda