Dana DeBardelaben

1st Half!

First a little about me...I'm married to the man of my prayers, Dwayne.  I have two (almost grown) kids, who I naturally adore.  My son, Andrew, is 18 and currently considering joining the Marines!  My daughter, Ashely, is 16 and is college shopping.   My cat, Zorro, is still wrapped in the best robes and eating the fattened calf (click on the links for that to make some sense!).  I'd like to say I "stay home"...but that would be a total lie.  The truth is, I don't have a job that earns an income, but I work (out) very hard, and I do my best to make a home for my family. 

In December 2009, I decided I wanted to "get off the couch".  While most people were going from couch to 5K, and Caneilia Patterson was going from couch to Triathlon...I set a goal to go from couch to MARATHON.  My original goal was to run Rocket City 2010, but you've heard about the "best laid plans", right?  You can read more about the ups and downs of my training in my "running" blog (that has recently turned "tri"...but that's another story!)

As of today, I've run several 5Ks, an 8K, a 10K, and 2 half marathons.  I'm currently training for my first triathlon (with Coach Caneilia!) as well as my first really tough trail run (McKay Hollow Madness).  I coach NOBO and Next Steps for Fleet Feet.  I'm a member of the Huntsville Track Club, the Team Rocket Tri Club and the USMS/HSA.

I first heard about Hood to Coast last year and thought to myself, "those people are NUTS!"  Someone obviously slipped me some of the cool-aide, because by the time the movie was released, I was already trying to find out how to be a part of the insanity fun.  I went to the movie with Casey and told her we should think about doing the race in 2012.  Before the night was over, she had formulated a plan.  Not only were we going to run the race, we were going to join in with DetermiNation to raise money for the American Cancer Society. 

In less than 24 hours it went from "just" running a race, to racing for a cause.  (That's less time than it will take for us to actually run the race!)