Kathleen Casto with 2nd win under her belt!

This past few weeks we’ve had several great performances from our new Sprint Triathletes, to our Iron Distance athletes.  But this coming weekend our very own Leslie Holton is flying over to Sicily, Italy, to compete in the Deca Ironman.

What is this you ask?  It’s the ultimate test for the athlete both physically and mentally.  It is TEN IRON DISTANCE RACES in 10 Days.

I’m not going to cover the ‘Why’s of this endeavor.  I am going to talk about the challenge that Leslie presented to me last year around this time when she asked if I’d coach her for this event.

The first question I had to ask was HOW do you get someone to the point where they can operate for 10 days, and yet not put them over the edge physically and mentally.  You see, Leslie doesn’t have all the time in the world to train.  She has a full 40-50 hour a week job.  And not only that, but she also lives in Colorado where the weather doesn’t always cooperate with you.  This year they had snow up until June, and then record heat all through the summer to rival what we suffered on the East Coast.

Then we also had to re-introduce running and swimming into her program as she had spent the previous two years doing ultra-cycling events.  At least we knew she could ride forever!

Believe it or not she was relatively injury free the entire training year.  We had our bumps along the way, but overall she gave it everything she could to get to the starting line.  Everything wasn’t perfect, she missed workouts due to travel and work, but no one’s training is ever perfect when we get to the starting line.

And on Friday – Leslie will start the journey…..may you have a glorious 10 days in Sicily, Leslie!