Why did I spell lakke with two k's?

Another year, another lake. As most of you know, last summer I became the first woman to swim Flathead Lake and I did the swim as a fundraiser for Karmyn Flanagan. Although I have always been very into fundraising, last year's swim was the biggest fundraising effort I have embarked on. Last year I was able to raise over $9,000 for Karmyn and her family. I am happy to report that Karmyn is doing well and I still keep in touch with her family.

This year I will be raising money for Katelyn Roker, whose nickname is KK (that's why I am spelling Lakke with two k's). Here is a little bit about Katelyn from a facebook page promoting a fundraiser for her:

In January 2010, 4 year old Katelyn Roker was diagnosed with Stage 4, High Risk, Neuroblastoma, cancer of the nervous system. She recently finished 16 months of intense treatment. Last October, there was No Evidence of Disease, and the family was elated. Unfortunately, in April 2011, after a series of scans and tests, the family was devestated to learn that she has relapsed and the cancer has once again returned. She now has 4 tumors, and cancer in her bone marrow. Because she relapsed so quickly, her chances to beat this disease have decreased from 50% to 10%. With continued support, hope, and prayers, the family is exploring their options, which could include travel to a Neuroblastoma specialist team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York City.

My swim that I will be attempting this year is a 55-mile swim of Lake Chelan in WA. I plan to complete the swim the last week of August, which gives me 15 weeks. I anticipate this swim will likely take me at least 24 hours to complete.

I took a nice extended off season following my swim last summer, and took additional time off from significant swim training by training for and completing the Nashville Marathon at the end of April. With my training having shifted from swimming to running for a few months, I am now eager to get back to long distance swim training. The sun was out and it was warm for the entire weekend (which was a first for the year in the Flathead Valley), so I anticipate the first lake practice of the year to be right around the corner.

Last week, I began easing back into a swim routine. I only swam three times, and the most I swam during any of those practices was 4,000 yards. I did some running and biking cross training in addition to a few VASA workouts. My goal this next week is to get my bootie out of bed for morning swims. I am now training at the Summit which is like 5 minutes away from my house, so as long as I can drag myself out of bed...there are no excuses about having to drive too far to swim! I could use a morning swimming buddy, so if you workout at the Summit and want to swim in the mornings...get in touch with me.

~Emily