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Meet Coeur Athlete Katie Zaferes

                                                                                          Katie Zaferes

It is our distinct pleasure and high honor to introduce you to rising ITU star Katie Hursey! After graduating from Syracuse in 2012 where she ran track and steeplechase, Katie decided to give triathlon a shot.  Only six months after graduation, she was spotted by the head of the Under 23 Olympic Development team and invited to live at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.  

Heart and Courage at Ironman Hawaii

I think we have mentioned it enough but Coeur is French for heart and the root of the noun courage. Or more precisely the abstract noun “courage” since I suppose you can’t actually touch it. While we’re on a definitional/grammatical tangent, I’ll go on to mention that courage is defined as the ability or willingness to confront fear, danger, uncertainty or intimidation.

 

So, why does that matter? To answer that question, we’ll have to go back a couple of months.

woman in wheelchair

One Coeur-ageous Athlete

We looked over to our left and happened to see one of the Challenged Athlete Foundation ("CAF") competitors in her race chair.  She was a petite woman and was at a dead stop about halfway up a hill.  For the most part no one was watching and it was apparent that her arms were about to give out.  Before I go on to tell the rest of this, I have to just say that I have re-written this next section twice and I just can't find the words to convey how incredible, inspiring, emotional and moving we found this to be.  

Minda in Kona

A report from Kona FAN-tastic

A well written account of Kona from the perspective of an Iron Fan!

Days before the Kona race, we all went to see the practice swim and laughed our heads off at the UNDERPANTS RUN.

Day of the race, we all got up at 4AM to go with them to registration. I don’t know if we were support team, entourage or both….but we were there as a functioning unit. Communication was key - between both moms, and dad and brother/brother-in-law and phone calls to those left on the mainland to report “she’s out of the water”; “he had a great transition time”; “just saw her on the bike – she looks great”…..communication was as streamlined and tight and concise as any military unit on a mission.