Tracy KornTracy is a language assistance program coordinator and English teacher at an alternative high school for at risk students in the Midwest. She is currently training for Ironman Wisconsin, 2007. Movie Moments
Source: Tracy Korn
Sometimes I see my life in movie clips; the ending scene where the anthem music builds in the background as I walk from a swim, hair still damp, to my car in the misty, rain-soaked... Read Tri-Life Manifesto II
Source: Tracy Korn
There will be times when the only sounds you'll hear are the spinning of your own wheels, the grinding of your own gears... Read Tri-Life Manifesto
Source: Tracy Korn
Chapter One. ~The first 10 minutes of anything requiring effort almost always suck. Just after the alarm goes off, getting into the pool and suffering the first 100 yards on a winter day, etc.... Read So Far
Source: Tracy Korn
Along the way, we discover the real reasons for why we first begin. Read Initus
Source: Tracy Korn
And of it all, at least I can say... at the very least I can say that come stumbling be damned I came. At the very least I can say I decided, whether I knew... Read Park and Walk
Source: Tracy Korn
Some things about some people may simply always baffle me. When I was a kid my dad and I would sit in the car while my mom ran into the store with my little brother... Read DNF
Source: Tracy Korn
Beginning is the hardest part. I've been sitting here looking at this blank screen for an hour now at least, and have decided that this is true. Read Phase 5
Source: Tracy Korn
The default word is acceptance. For what it is, for what it will be. But I don't agree completely because it's too passive a word; implying something tolerated, or against my otherwise will or preference.... Read The Last Brick
Source: Tracy Korn
Tomorrow morning I'll get into the lake at 5:30 for 3,000 yards. The sun won't be up just yet, but I've grown to prefer it that way. I like the feeling of beating it out... Read Apathy Cancer
Source: Tracy Korn
Why tri? Well. That's a long story... My grandmother used to tell me that the definition of stupidity was doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. Read Breaking Ground
Source: Tracy Korn
The hardest part about going too far is that at some point, you need to come back. I knew the minute I decided. Maybe I should have been stronger. But it felt so right. Read 100 Days
Source: Tracy Korn
100 days is not a lot of time, and in that time I have a lot to put into place. But before I can even begin, I have this to sort: Being gone is... Read Apollo
Source: Tracy Korn
Baby, don’t you know me by now? Take it off…take it all off…and let’s go for a ride. The closer we get the more he tells me... Read Mini Report
Source: Tracy Korn
For the first time in a very long time I felt ready. Ready packed, ready state of mind, ready legs, rea- … pac- … ready? Oh $%#! The packet! Scrambling through my confirmation book, I... Read Endurance
Source: Tracy Korn
1. The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress. 2. The state or fact of persevering. 3. Continuing existence; duration. I thought that I thought it was, but now that I think about... Read True
Source: Tracy Korn
“I can’t sleep… you up?” “We’re always up. Why can’t you sleep?” “I don’t know.“ ‘Yes you do.” “No, I really don’t.” “Well, let’s go find out…grab your coat.” “Huh… I thought it would be... Read I Heard the Wind
Source: Tracy Korn
I heard the wind. Before my alarm I heard the wind and I knew there would be a struggle. Not a war, there’s nothing like war and only those so fortunate to have never... Read I Need a Nemesis
Source: Tracy Korn
I need a nemesis – something to keep me honest everyday, something to keep me moving because if I stop, it will be waiting. It evolves as I do, one step ahead some days and... Read Footprints
Source: Tracy Korn
Today started out rough. Our son woke up in the middle of the night after having had a bad dream, so I sat on the side of his bed until he fell back to sleep.... Read Ignition
Source: Tracy Korn
Now I'm ready. Now. I thought that I was ready before, but I wasn't. I was still afraid. I was still that other who didn’t fully believe because she’d been weakened by six weeks of... Read Run
Source: Tracy Korn
If you’ve forgotten why you do this, or doubt if you can come back as even a suggestion of what you were. Once. Once when you believed in it even though you were terrified. If... Read When I Go Listening
Source: Tracy Korn
Of this morning, I must say, I am living a charmed life. I’m not exactly sure why, I think it has something to do with having the ability to admit it to the entire world... Read Hang On
Source: Tracy Korn
I think that sometimes I just have to be damn obnoxious, that the only difference between the average everyday of it and the ideal life is directly proportionate to the amount of time a person... Read The Final Round
Source: Tracy Korn
This was how I felt that morning too. No, that afternoon, when that old man made the boxer’s fists at me while silently sitting on the stoop. It was all in slow motion then for... Read Today
Source: Tracy Korn
I have so far to go. It's almost ridiculous. I'm afraid and excited and there are these doubts that are heavy on some days. Today. Today I wonder if I have what it takes... Read Open Up the Track
Source: Tracy Korn
At one time I thought it was impossible. At one time. It was before I realized that I was meant for something else. It was before I realized that the only difference between a dream... Read The Mirror
Source: Tracy Korn
I haven’t even changed my clothes yet. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so much is so short of a time, and I suppose that I wanted to write it all down before it... Read Crossroads
Source: Tracy Korn
I have no happy answer for you. In fact, there is no euphemism, so I’ll just be frank. I have learned that there is no easy way - that unless you are prepared to sacrifice... Read I'll Say This Once
Source: Tracy Korn
I signed up quite frankly because it will be hard - because it will be that much harder than what many of the hardiest of souls consider to be hard, and because of this it... Read Why
Source: Tracy Korn
"Why did you run so damn early this morning?" People always ask me that, and honestly, it’s because if I didn’t the marathon would break me in half. And we just can’t have that. But... Read The Edge
Source: Tracy Korn
Here at the edge of it I must remind myself that there are things that I have learned, things that have not come easily – things for which I went hunting, for which I... Read This Time Next Year
Source: Tracy Korn
This time next year I will have ridden 120 miles. I will have swum three-and-a-half miles, and I will have run 30-miles at a pop, just to make mile 20 the new mile 16.... Read The Crossing
Source: Tracy Korn
So, today is my last day on this side of it. No bridge back, and I suppose that I knew that going in. But you can never really know. Read Tell Them
Source: Tracy Korn
Just tell them that I was alive. That I was a contradiction and that there was no explanation for the way things fell out of my Mind. Tell them that I never built a bit... Read A New Kind of Ocean
Source: Tracy Korn
"The fear of suffering is often worse than the suffering itself." ~ Paolo Coelho - The Alchemist.
I set up my transition area all OCD like, even put out some sunblock-chapstick. Guh... Read The Hurricane
Source: Tracy Korn
Tracy reports in on her first Marathon. An inspirational read for any contemplating going the distance. Read Come Hither, Hurricane
Source: Tracy Korn
Today I called a meeting. I wanted to find all of the fears before they caught up with me out there, before they could ambush me and begin dismantling everything that I’ve been building for... Read 31
Source: Tracy Korn
I’m 31 today. I can’t believe that 31 years have already gone by. I think about all of the things I’ve done so far and all of the places I’ve been, and it makes me... Read The Journey
Source: Tracy Korn
Everyone needs a foundation, and I don’t just mean in miles and yards. Triathlon training takes a lot out of a person physically, mentally and emotionally, so it’s a good idea to make sure that... Read The Morning After
Source: Tracy Korn
A follow up to, I Can't Sleep... 5:30 – I have to get up now. Should have gotten up an hour and a half ago. No more negotiating. Stayed up too late with that little regrouping episode... Read I Can't Sleep
Source: Tracy Korn
The technical training material provided here each week can sometimes be a bit overwhelming. To give some relief and the much deserved occasional break, I thought it time to start providing a lighter, and sometimes not-so-lighter, perspective on the sport and what we mortals endure for our chosen lifestyle. With that, we're privileged to have Tracy Korn join us as our first age-grouper regular columnist. Read