Dear friends,

My near and dear friends, I was so touched and thankful to receive so many kind words on the 19th, the day I celebrated nine years of recovery since the very day I almost killed myself while cycling in training for a half-Ironman. It's so hard for me to believe I had signed up for the EagleMan triathlon in Maryland where I was to swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles and then run 13.1 miles. I mean was I insane?? That sounds so difficult. Like not just knock-the-wind-out-of-you-difficult but PRO athletes-who- live-and-breathe-training-difficult. I was no PRO athlete. Yes, I had completed two and coached several marathons but to swim bike and run more than 70 miles without a breather? Is that so insane I should be locked up? I feel like it is. But my life was ALL about fitness. My job? The fitness editor of SELF magazine, a job which required me to work in Times Square of New York City hiring writers to fill the fitness pages of a nationally-published magazine. Not only that, but SELF magazine was up against several other national magazines and our goal was to outsell the others in subscriptions and newsstand copies. No pressure, right? Wrong. A very competitive field, which apparently I liked because in my free time, I trained and competed in marathons and what would become my first half-Ironman triathlon. Unfortunately, that competition remains an unrealized dream. Though there is something I'd like to put out there to get your wise words and opinions. Since next year (2012) I will celebrate 10 years of recovery (from coma and wheelchair to independent living), I am thinking about getting a bike and spending the next year preparing myself physically and mentally for a triathlon, no half-Ironmans or Ironmans just a local sprint triathlon. I have fallen in love with fitness again, in order to shed an extra 20-30 pounds the inactive me had put on since 2002. So to me it sounds like a goal worth fulfilling in the 10th year after a horrific, life-changing accident like my own. What do you say? Crazy? Off my rocker again? My sister Maya will most likely be flying her horse to London to compete in the Olympics so this is just chump change in my book...