Kona Peeps - Susan Katz
For anyone that will be in Kona this year . . . keep an eye out for Susan Katz. Susan will be competing in the wheelchair division . . . she was not given a "human interest" slot by NBC . . . she qualified at Buffalo Springs (1 slot, 1 badass)!
She's aiming to be the first woman ever to complete Kona in the wheelchair division.
I had the good fortune of meeting Susan in the Houston airport in April as we were both waiting for our flight to New Orleans . . . her to do NOLA 70.3, my wife and I to meet some friends and eat/drink for the weekend
. She had checked her handcycle but was travelling with her race wheelchair. I put 2 and 2 together and figured out that she was doing 70.3 that weekend and introduced myself. We ended up chatting for 15-20 minutes about racing, training, gear, etc. The person meeting her in NOLA to help her with her stuff was late, so we ended helping her track down her handcycle at baggage claim, etc. If you think it's tough being an able bodied person travelling with a bike, you should see what it takes for this woman to travel and race! It is literally a two-person operation.
If you see her, I would really encourage you to introduce yourself. Besides being an athletic badass (she just went sub-14 in Louisville), she is about the most friendly, radiant, amazing person you will ever meet. Truly inspirational . . . the 30 minutes or so that I interacted with her impacted me in ways that are hard to explain, except to say that she has been a part of my One Thing ever since.
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