ATHLETES, IRONMAN, Hawaii, Kate Bruck

**************Competitor Magazine.com***************


70.3 Qualifier and fundraiser
Athlete: Kate Bruck
Age group: F35-39
Bib number: 1473



I have been racing Ironman since 2007, but I have been dreaming of doing Kona ever since I watched it on TV when I was in the fourth grade. I quit my full-time job to become a personal trainer so I could have a part time flexible schedule to make room for more training time. I hired a coach and got serious with my training with the hope of qualifying last year. Four weeks before Ironman Lake Placid, I sliced my foot open during the swim exit of a tri. After months of extensive medical care to try to reduce the size of the painful plantar fibroma I had developed as a result of the accident, I started running again last December, although I was almost certain I was done with triathlon. I had already signed up for Rev3 Costa Rica so that was my first tri after being inactive since July. Training was going well, the fibroma had been reduced from the size of a large gumball to the size of a cherry pit and the pain had also reduced. Although there will always been some lingering discomfort from the lump on my plantar fascia, it is nothing like it was. I came in second in my age group at Eagleman 70.3 and after waiting around for two hours, I found out that I had earned one of the two roll-down slots to Kona! I hadn’t expected it at all. It was such an incredible moment, one I will never forget. I then continued training and competed in Ironman Lake Placid and placed second in my age group and ninth overall! It was so amazing to stand up on that podium and reflect on how everything had turned for the better!

After I had qualified at Eagleman, I felt so blessed to have been given the opportunity that I wanted to do something to give back. It was that following Monday that I found out my friend Megan was fighting aggressive liver cancer and with overwhelming expenses drowning her and her husband, I started a website with a fund attached for friends to donate. I have raised about $1,000 and am hoping that I can generate at least another $1,000 by race day.

I have been working with Coach Cliff Scherb (TriStarAthletes.com) for my coaching—he focuses on quality, not quantity, so I usually peak at about 25 training hours before the biggest races. Training has gone really, really well and both he and I are pretty excited for me to race Kona

See you in Kona!

Aaron Hersh is the senior tech editor for Triathlete magazine. Follow him on Twitter: @TriathleteTech.