This one's for Shannon

I have two older sisters, Shannon and Ashley. Ashley is a year and half older than me, and not online much, and she's missed all the more for it, even if she does live 3 blocks away from me ;)

Shannon is 4 years older than I am, lives in Squamish, and is headed to Costa Rica in a couple of days to embark upon something called The Coastal Challenge: Route of Fire. Now, I have always looked up to my sister but I'm not sure I'll ever follow in these particular footsteps:  http://www.thecoastalchallenge.com/

Shannon has being training for this particular 6 day stage race for seven months (her blog here: http://shannshann22.blogspot.com/ ) and she's had her fair share of adventure running already:

She's been attacked by an owl, met a few bears, ran by countless deer, and raccoons, and most likely been stalked by a stealth cougar that luckily she never had to know about.

She would wake early enough to go for two hour runs before she had to go to work at the daycare. She spent late hours at the gym while her trusty crock pot simmered away at home. She procured a road bike on which she sustained her first crash when a fierce railroad track tripped her up. The real tragedy there was that no one stopped to help her as they drove by!!
She finally got some rollers so she could train on the bike in the comfort of her tiny living room.

Anyone who has ever collected bottles at the depot knows how little money you get for a lot of bottles. Shannon had her friends save their bottles and cans so she could collect the money. She went to the bottle depot every weekend since August and she saved $500 which I am astounded by because that's a lot of money, not to mention truckloads and truckloads of bottle trips to the depot!

She suffered injury setbacks, as all athletes do. A random neck sprain, a sprained ligament in her calf, and in a sport entirely unrelated to running she stubbed her toe rather badly while walking to the couch on Loggers Sports sister fun time weekend in Squamish :) 
And, even after a full day of snot nosed kids at daycare she made herself available to babysit most nights to make a little more money.

I wish I could go with her to Costa Rica to support her but I can't. So I will be following along online on Shannon's progress, updating her facebook and twitter status for her and waiting anxiously to hear all about her experience when she gets back!

Shan's theme song through all of this was "Break My Stride". For whatever reason this song stood out in her mind and helped her in her training when things looked a little bleak, or as the runs got longer.

"Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/Nobody gonna slow me down/oh no I got to keep on moving/ Ain't nothing gonna break my stride/I'm running in a one touch ground, oh no

I got to keep on moving. "

I'd post a link to the video but it's just too damned awful. Or hilarious. I haven't decided.

Anyways, to Shannon: You've worked SO hard for this and earned every kilometer you are about to run. This will be an amazing, life changing experience that you will never forget, and it will likely take you a couple of weeks afterwards to process what you just accomplished. I'm overflowing with pride and love and will be following along closely :) Don't let anything break your stride!! Now go kick some ass!