She always thinks I’m kidding when I say she’s my hero.

Back in February Michelle sent in her registration for Reed's Lake Triathlon, http://www.eastgr.org/?t=49&c=131, an event scheduled to take place on September 8th. At the time I thought she was out of her mind. She had a due date for her first child on July 14th, and she had no idea what to expect for recovery time. By the time she sent in that registration the doctors had already warned her of her condition which made her susceptible to pre-term labor, but there were no guarantees. Her thought was that she would stay as fit as possible and then most likely have a baby a few weeks early (late June). That would leave her about 9-10 weeks to train for the triathlon. That was in the perfect world, assuming an early vaginal delivery. As the end of June came upon us with the baby still in her belly she started to become depressed of the fact that her window of opportunity to compete at Reeds Lake was slipping away. Around the 10th of July she pretty much wrote it off. On July 20th Addison finally arrived and everything was good, at that time a healthy baby was worth more than any personal achievement, and the c-section delivery pretty much made the thought of doing a Triathlon in seven weeks out of the question. Or so it seemed….
Yes, appearently, this little girl was not about to stand in the way of her mother. Michelle did go through with it; this past Saturday Michelle attempted, completed, and tore up the course in East Grand Rapids finishing the half mile swim, 17.1 mile bike, and 4.9 mile run in 2 hours, 6 minutes and some change. She finished in the upper half of her age group. So I’ll say it again and maybe this time she’ll realize I’m not kidding. Michelle, you are my hero! You were an inspiration to many this past Saturday.