photo 11 The first 2 years the Race for Tara was held, I was more or less on the sidelines in terms of helping with the event simply because my life was about focusing on my rehab! It was that year that I decided to change the name from the Race for Tara to the Tara Llanes Classic and also the year that we became much more involved with the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. When we were going into year number three I was becoming more involved in the event probably since I had just moved to Canada and had a bit more time on my hands. I was doing better in terms of my recovery and I wanted to be able to help others so we split the monies raised between the Reeve-Irvine Center and the Tara Llanes Classic. That way we could donate some of the funds to help find a cure for spinal cord injury as well as still be able to help me pay for some of my medical expenses. Going into our 5th year one of my best friends, Aaron Baker, who had talked about opening his own rehab facility finally did it! His facility is called CORE, which stands for Center of Restorative Exercise and they opened their doors about 2 years ago! There are very few facilities such as CORE in the United States that I know of so when one opens up with the specialized equipment required, you want to see it succeed. So I felt it would be a good idea to not only get behind the Reeve-Irvine Center to find a cure but to also get behind CORE and all the people with spinal cord injuries that continue to work their asses off day in and day out, keeping their bodies in the best possible physical condition so that when it comes time to do some walking their bodies can handle it! Last year was our 7th year of the Tara Llanes Classic and one of our most successful. I am so very proud of that. At the same time the event was getting to be a huge undertaking for me personally and I had to make the decision as to whether or not we would have the event the following year. I made the decided that we needed a bit of a break and to sort of regroup a bit before we get our next event going. This is not the end of the TLC!