Chase Michael-Anthony Kowalski, the son of Rebecca and Stephen Kowalski, was just 7 years old when he died at Sandy Hook Elementary School, December 14, 2012, along with 19 classmates and six educators. Their active, athletically inclined son and third child, with two older sisters, Brittany and Erin, amazed them, said Rebecca Kowalski. At age 6, Chase was a triathlete, competing with his age group in the challenging swim/bike/race contest.

CMAK Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by the Kowalskis after Chase’s death, works to encourage strong families and communities through various events, including triathalons, 5K runs, and an annual scavenger hunt based on places and things Chase loved. The CMAK Foundation supports preschool education through grants to schools for children who need assistance, said Kevin Grimes, executive director of the CMAK Foundation.

“And because Chase was a triathlete, we wanted to honor him by helping other kids do the same,” Mr Grimes said. A six-week summer triathalon training program that began at the Waterbury YMCA and has expanded to eight YMCA sites, introduces children to positive health experiences, he said, and ends each session with a staged youth triathalon.

“Our future goal,” said Mr Grimes, “is to create a Chase’s Place, a room in a future Pomperaug area YMCA that has been proposed, where families can work out together.”

Chase, said Ms Kowalski on August 24, has been an inspiration to athletes near and far, including herself. She will compete in the Women’s Sprint Triathalon, Sunday, August 30, at Winding Trails in Farmington. The course is a half-mile swim, followed by a 12-mile bike ride, and culminates with a 3.1-mile trail run. It would be impressive enough if her life had always included athletic competition. But Ms Kowalski said that unlike her active son, her brushes with fitness occurred many years ago, as a child swimmer and bike rider.

She got moving last year, she said, when a friend at the Race4Chase Triathalon in Monroe challenged her

“She reminded me that I always said I’d never ask anybody to do something I wouldn’t do myself; but I was asking kids to be triathletes, ‘And you are not one,’ she said. My first reaction was ‘I hate you!’ My second reaction was ‘You’re right!’” Ms Kowalski said.

 

A Goal And A Purpose

She set a goal of competing in a triathalon in 2015, and began training. “I’ve had the support of five friends, training on and off together. We call ourselves the Tri-4-Chase Chicks,” she laughed.

“Last fall, I started walking with a friend. Then I tried mixed martial arts at MXA in Plaza South. They had an eight-week fitness challenge, and I thought I’d see what I could do,” she said. She liked it so much, she has stuck with it, training there three to four times a week.

Next, she began to add running to her walking schedule.

What she found was the purpose she had been seeking, and came up with the idea of a birthday to birthday challenge, asking people to send her an e-mail, committing to ten athletic competitions in Chase’s memory, nine of them between Chase’s ninth birthday, October 31, 2014, and his tenth birthday, this coming October. The Kowalskis will host the tenth event, a Zombie Run at Great Hollow Lake in Monroe’s Wolf Park, this October 31.

The August 30 Women’s Sprint Triathalon will be Ms Kowalski’s eighth of the ten events honoring her son’s memory. On September 27, she will complete her ninth at the Tunnels to Towers 5K in New York City, a run commemorating New York City firefighter Stephen Siller, who died 9/11.

Running, walking, and kickboxing are not all she has done to prepare for the Women’s Sprint Triathalon. She has renewed her love of bicycling, and learned to clip in and out of her pedals. August 24 was not an unusual morning for her, starting out with a 2-mile walk, then adding a 2.6-mile run, a kickboxing class, dropping off and picking up her daughters from various events, a visit to the chiropractor, and dropping in to see a friend. A half-mile swim at Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury was on the agenda for the evening.

“This past May, a friend said to me, ‘We need to take a master swimming class.’ It’s the best thing I ever did,” she said of the Parks and Rec program at Newtown High School. “As a kid, I swam for speed. As a triathlete, you swim for distance, so I had to kind of relearn swimming,” said Ms Kowalski.

She has amazed herself, going from breathlessness after one lap on the first day of class to a 1.2-mile swim on August 18, in open water.

“That was the victory,” she said.

It has not been easy for this former smoker and “stay-at-home, baking cookies mom” to train for this event. Physically, she has an Achilles tendon that “is not happy,” said Ms Kowalski, and “something behind my knee that I have to baby.” Training, however, is a way for her to work out her issues, release some anger or frustration, and deal with the loss of Chase.

Emotional And Mental Preparation

Triathletes and other athletes often prepare mentally for a competition. For Ms Kowalski, there is an emotional element that goes beyond mental preparation.

Swimming and biking require a great deal of her concentration, she said, and she is able to stay focused fairly easily. “Running time, that’s when you think, and that’s tough. I try to just keep moving forward; this will be done soon, it’s another accomplishment, one more thing for Chase,” she said.

It is the finish line of any event that is the worst for her. “There is that sense of accomplishment… but Chase isn’t here to see it,” she said.

Completing the Women’s Sprint Triathalon will not be the end of training, Ms Kowalski said. The physical challenges have become means of clearing her head, and balancing her out in a world that could easily tip out of balance, were it not for her family, friends, and the focus provided by training.

She and her husband count on a core group of about 100 people they both know from growing up in Monroe, said Ms Kowalski. “They support us and help organize the many CMAK events. This group is always there for us, keeping Chase’s memory alive. It helps us with working through the loss,” she said. Through the numerous Race4Chase events that have occurred to date, they have also met people from all over the country and the world. There are “regulars” at the races, she said, that eventually she and her husband meet, she said, and whom they see as supporters.

“A lot of what we do is divine intervention,” Ms Kowalski said. “Chase is there, and we take his lead. The way we see the CMAK Foundation, it’s a gift from God about what we’re supposed to do and what is coming.

“The family of Race4Chase keeps growing. Out of the tragedy, we become better people. The fact that Chase was a triathlete at age 6 blows people away. He has empowered others to be all they can be, or all they never thought they could be. That,” she said, “is cool.”

Inspired By Chase’s Story

Newtown resident David Prud’homme is one person who has been influenced by Chase’s story to push himself. The father of five young children, none of whom attended Sandy Hook Elementary, and who has met the Kowalskis only once, Mr Prud’homme will be taking part in an Ironman competition in Cambridge, Md., Saturday, October 3. He will be running not only to honor Chase, but as Chase. His entry bib will have Chase’s name, rather than his own, and the organizers of this Ironman competition have already issued Mr Prud’homme his number: 1214.

“I met Rebecca [Kowalski] and another CMAK Foundation volunteer at the 2014 Pumpkin Festival at Fairfield Hills,” said Mr Prud’homme. “That was where I learned about the CMAK Foundation and Chase’s story. There were a couple of things about [his story] that captured me. He had this love for the triathalon, something I got into later in life,” Mr Prud’homme recalled.

A hockey player as a youth, the six-foot-tall Newtowner confessed that he let his health go during college and post-college years, and his weight soared to more than 300 pounds. In 2010, his wife’s grandmother challenged him to turn his health around, and he accepted her challenge. He took up running, and then discovered the triathalon competitions.

“I had never swum competitively, and never biked, except as a kid,” he said, but he fell in love with the swim/bike/run challenge of the triathalon. He lost weight, and became stronger and healthier.

The move from Tennessee to Connecticut in 2012, coupled with a surprise fifth pregnancy for his wife, put his exercising on hold, though, said Mr Prud’homme. He conquered that fallback by training for the 2012 Ironman in Lake Placid.

“I got how Chase fell in love with the triathalon so quickly,” he said, in learning the young boy’s story, and was reminded of his own son, Noah. Noah completed a kids’ triathalon four years ago, when he was 7 years old.

“Noah and Chase were in the same place; but Noah can keep doing them if he wants. With Chase, his life was cut short and he never got a chance to continue with triathalons and push himself. I really believed that Chase might have gotten to the point where he did an Ironman,” Mr Prud’homme said.

Crossing The Finish Line

He was so inspired, he asked Ms Kowalski if he could run the Ironman in honor of Chase. “I want to carry Chase over the finish line, because he never got a chance to do it,” he said.

A year ago, he had already begun preparing for the Maryland event, losing 40 pounds, and training. Once he knew he was running for Chase, it helped him continue with the grueling schedule.

“That helps get me out of bed at 4 am each morning to train — earlier on weekends. With five kids, there is no time to bike, run, or swim after work or in the evenings. This is very much a team effort for my family. Kim, my wife, knows she’ll lose me for long blocks of time. She is so supportive, for me to do this,” he said.

Each week, Mr Prud’homme puts in 10 to 15 hours of training. His very early day begins with a one-hour run or a 90-minute bike ride of 25 miles. At lunchtime, he heads over from his job with the family company in Bethany to a nearby pool to swim.

“On weekends, I’ll do long runs of 18 miles, or a bike ride of 100 miles, in the morning, before it gets too hot,” he said. Training this time around has been harder, he admitted.

“If I wasn’t doing this for Chase and the foundation, I may have given up months ago,” he said. But he is motivated by the fact that Chase’s family does not get to quit.

“They have to deal with his loss every day,” he said.

Mr Prud’homme is grateful that Chase’s family is allowing him to run for their son. “When I look at a picture of Chase, I see my son, Noah, at age 7. And I love what the foundation stands for: keeping families together and keeping them healthy. I think it’s fantastic,” he said.

His Ironman quest is also a means of fundraising for CMAK Foundation. He has set a goal of raising $5,000 by October 3, and has received pledges for more than $1,200 so far.

He is feeling good about his preparation for the October 3 event.

“I went through a period this summer where I fell behind, but the last two weeks I’ve done some really good training. I feel ready,” he said, to take on the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and complete the 26.2-mile marathon. He hopes to complete the event in less than 14 hours, beating his 2012 time.

“I don’t know how many in the Ironman will know Chase’s story,” he said, but there will be time along the way to interact with other participants. “I’ll be happy to share it,” he said.

For this competitor, it is not about winning. “It’s about finishing, staying upright, and doing good for the foundation. And that’s great,” said Mr Prud’homme.

He also had a message for Ms Kowalski.

“I read on her blog that she wasn’t sure she could do an Ironman, that she was thinking of doing the Irongirl. Rebecca could do the Ironman. She’s got the toughness to do it,” he said, “and I hope she gets the bug.”

To support Mr Prud’homme and the CMAK Foundation, visit www.swimbikerunraise.blogspot.com. To support the CMAK Foundation directly, visit www.cmakfoundation.org.