{"id":9,"date":"2008-07-05T02:45:12","date_gmt":"2008-07-05T09:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=9"},"modified":"2008-07-05T14:42:15","modified_gmt":"2008-07-05T21:42:15","slug":"bali-international-triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"Bali International Triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On June 29, 2008 I did the Bali International Triathlon\u00a0for one of my best friends, Vi Jones-Medusky. \u00a0Vi is a great surfer, marathon runner (PR 3:28) and Ironman triathlete who encouraged me to do them too, “Come on Lorenn, it’s really fun!” she said. \u00a0Always smiling and cheerful, that’s Vi.<\/span><\/p>\n

Four years ago, while running the New York Marathon, she noticed something was wrong with her muscles. Several months later she was diagnosed with ALS, a.k.a.\u00a0“Lou Gehrig’s disease,” but it has not stopped her from living a happy and meaningful life. \u00a0While Vi has every right to feel extreme sorrow for herself, she has been courageous instead, and an example for the rest of us to be grateful for what we have. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vi is a registered nurse who went back to school after getting ALS. \u00a0On July 6, 2008 she will receive her masters degree in nursing that she earned last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bali Triathlon (http:\/\/championchip-thailand.com\/marathon-results\/BaliTriathlon\/Overall08.htm)\u00a0was supposed to be an Olympic distance course, but the swim was about 2000 meters instead of 1500. \u00a0After the swim, there was a 40-kilometer road bike ride, and then a 10-kilometer run. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The swim was gnarly. \u00a0It was super sediment filled water so there was practically no visibility, except I did manage to see the biggest jellyfish of my life! \u00a0Thankfully I missed swimming right into it and only brushed up, getting a mild sting. \u00a0The current was strong too, with the fastest pro man taking 27 minutes to finish the swim, which is a slow time for that distance.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biking was fun–windy narrow roads with some hills, dogs and little kids darting about, and some very slow moving trucks to pass. \u00a0Finally, the run was pretty much what you’d expect in hot humid Bali at 9:00 in the morning after swimming and biking.<\/span><\/p>\n

I thought it was going to be a cruise with only me in the 55 – 59 female age group. \u00a0I had been in Bali for two weeks, learning about the Indonesian justice system, and taking it easy, enjoying the Bin Tang beer–even the night before the race! \u00a0It was a surprise to find two women, who both qualified for Kona Ironman this year, in my division. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a tiring race, but luckily I had done some running with Vi’s daughter Malia Jones a week before the race. \u00a0Malia is a professional surfer and model who has been on the cover of many magazines including Outside<\/em>\u00a0June 2008, and she is also a fantastic runner (her marathon PR is around 3:20). \u00a0Training with Malia helped me finish the race a little faster than my competition. \u00a0Here are some photos of Vi and I and some others. \u00a0Remember to appreciate what you have no matter what it is, if Vi can find something to smile about, we all can.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 29, 2008 I did the Bali International Triathlon\u00a0for one of my best friends, Vi Jones-Medusky. \u00a0Vi is a great surfer, marathon runner (PR 3:28) and Ironman triathlete who encouraged me to do them too, “Come on Lorenn, it’s really fun!” she said. \u00a0Always smiling and cheerful, that’s Vi. Four years ago, while running the New York Marathon, she noticed something was wrong with her muscles. Several months later she was diagnosed with ALS,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lorennwalker.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}