Featured Member: Cami Haley

I have been doing triathlons and with Bluff Busters since 2004 or 2005. At that point I was doing about 3 triathlons per year, sometimes a couple more. My background is mostly in running, so my year of triathlon I swam my races on my back - I didn't want to put my face in the water.  Taylor (my husband) and I took swimming lessons that first winter and that helped me transition to being about to do the front crawl. I probably never would have considered triathlon except that Taylor thought it would be a good way to strike a balance with fitness to have all three disciplines and provide good workouts all through the year, so I owe it to him that I ever even did one.  I have to admit that after a few years I actually started looking at every lake with an eye to whether it had swim potential or not. That was a new way of looking at swimming for me for sure and proved I had moved beyond my fear of being in water.

Recently I took a couple years off of triathlon and focused only on running because my work schedule changed and I couldn't get to Got Energy, but this summer I did Lactic Edge Tri in Stevens Point and placed second in my age group, so that was pretty fun to get back at it again.

I have done only Sprints, with the exception of two olympic, so I would say that whatever race distance I have trained for is the one I like the most. I would not like to do a longer race right now because my swim is not back up to par since that time I took off.  When I am training for a triathlon I am motivated to do well in my age group but when I am not signed up for a race I don't work that hard. I have a hard time internally motivating and do better when I have others to work out with because I am pretty competitive and at times when I normally would stop or slow down on my own I keep going when I am with others (for the most part!).  One of the hardest things lately is that Taylor is now a much stronger and faster runner than he used to be so I can no longer know for sure that I can beat him -- much less even stay up with him!

Taylor and I have three children, the youngest of which is about to head off for college this fall, so that will change our lives a bit.  We have Jessica who is 23 and heading off to NYC to serve homeless and trafficked adolescents with Covenant House.  Chet will begin second semester of his Junior year at Iowa State this fall studying mechanical engineering and Hudson will study computer science at UW-Whitewater.  Mothering them has been my greatest pleasure and joy! (as well as being married to Taylor!!)

I keep busy working part-time for a campus ministry organization with home office in Pittsburgh (www.ccojubilee.org), helping our ministry staff raise financial support to serve on their campuses.  I also volunteer with our youth ministry at First Presbyterian Church in La Crosse.  I am heading into my final semester of nursing school at Western Technical College this month and plan to graduate in December.  This has really filled my days and been the other reason I stopped doing tris for a while. I did spend a lot of time with a book open on a treadmill or elliptical the past few winters!!

You asked what is one thing I learned in the past week? Back in Bible times (and I understand pretty much still today) middle eastern men would never run, it was childish and disgraceful. A writer and theologian Ray VanderLaan went to the middle east for research and asked a man there if there was ever a time he would run. The man paused, thought and replied "If a scorpion was near my daughter." In other words, "I would only run to save my child." If you are familiar with parables you can take that into consideration regarding the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15...and then consider who the characters in the story represent...and the meaning is deep.  Good thing I went to middle school camp last week as a camp counselor!! It was one of my favorite weeks this year.

I'm looking forward to IM Louisville and Florida with Taylor this summer/fall, finishing this portion of my nursing education, and figuring out what it means to not have kids in our home full-time anymore...and eating more salads and seafood!!

Thanks for asking about me -- see you all on the road!