Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Letter to the WTM Community

"Life hands us a lot of hard choices, and other people can help us more than we might realize. We often think we should make important decisions using just our own internal resources. What are the pros and cons? What does my gut tell me? But often we have friends and family who know us in ways we don't know ourselves."
-Sheena Iyengar

Hey WTM family,

          I am devastated to admit that I will not be running World's Toughest Mudder this year. I am still not healthy, and I am out of training time. If I were to compete with the amount of training I currently have under my belt, I would be risking injury that could take me further away from my goals. It is hard for me to look at the big picture, and my long term goals when I think about this event every single day. Every single part of me wants to be on that course with all of you this year, but it just isn't a good idea.

          So with that, I want to thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON who is training for me. Thank you to those people who added a mile to their train, to those who dedicated a run to me, or a TM lap. All of you helped pull me out of the dark place I was hiding in.
I am incredibly sad that I won't be running.

-BUT-

Do not worry, I will be there to support all of you in return.
My dad, the bagpiper, will be there too.
I will see all of you in 46 days.

Love,
Hanna Copper

PS: Special thank you to my Seattle team (see photos below). You all changed your pace to help me and my mom through the course. You put your own training on hold to make sure I could get through it. It was the single best tough mudder lap I have ever done. I love you all.


This is my mudder family, literally lifting me up.
They do this for me in more ways than one,
but at Seattle Tough Mudder they did it physically.

My mudder family and uncle are pushing my mom up to me,
so I can pull her on top of Everest (15' quarter pipe).
This photo makes me more proud that any other!

My Seattle Team:
Leslie Copper, Mike Wacker, Luigi Pascua, Kevin Chow, Scott McCracken,
Joe Herman, Carlo Piscitello, Steve Nix, Hanna Copper, Lee Bauck, Lia Marley.
Not shown: Jon Copper; my dad and the Bagpiper.

My dad, Jon Copper, piping us all across the finish line. 



Tuesday, September 8, 2015

#onemoreforcopper

"Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much."
-Helen Keller

I would like to ask the OCR community for a favor, and anyone else who would like to participate. As many of you now know, I have been sidelined for the better part of this year by an illness with an unknown cause. All the treatments I've tried have failed; 7 rounds of antibiotics and 2 rounds of steroids.



I can't train, and that's the worst part.

I am asking for the community to add one additional mile to their training for me? I am feeling lost, uninspired and depressed. I have been an athlete my whole life and don't know what to do with myself when I can't be active. I am 10 weeks away from World's Toughest Mudder and I don't have any miles to show for it. My training has been simply battling for my health. This seems silly to ask, but I'd like to feel like I'm doing something. If I can inspire others to up their training by just one single mile, it will hopefully inspire me to take it one day at a time, stay positive and look towards World's Toughest Mudder.
How many miles can the community help me reach by WTM?