Be Grateful

Last weekend was Ironman Texas. I had two good friends competing in this race, and truth be told, last fall I had thought about entering it myself. Thankfully I didn’t, becuase for everyone who knows me, training in this recent winter would have been the end of my triathlon career. Training through the winter months for a May triathlon is possible, but challenging. One of my friends who was racing IMTX lives in Denver, where the weather was a tad milder and she actually got some good workouts outdoors for the most part. My other pal is actually my triathlon coach, who spent a good majority of the winter training in Texas and New Mexico. So suffice it to say it’s a challenging race because it’s early in the triathlon calendar year, but it’s possible.

Both of these women inspire me for multiple reasons. Kristina (Denver) is a gal I met while doing my last “shakeout” bike ride for Ironman Louisville in 2012. Her pink bike and sparkly attitude inspired me at once. We had a conversation that day and have stayed friends since. She’s a force to be reckoned with….she a risk taker and unapologetic about it. She’s been through challenging relationships, jobs, health issues, injuries, and come out the other side with the most amazing attitude about racing that I’ve ever seen. Kristina has done multiple IM’s and even had to DNF a race once due to hypothermia. Did that stop her? Never. For this recent IMTX, she had an MRI reveal some challenging in her hamstring and glute, making running difficult. Kristina’s take on this? Simple. “For now I will swim the shit out of the swim, bike the hell out of the bike, and am cleared to walk my 'run' like nobody's business. There's a reason we have 17 hours at Ironman and if I have to crawl across that finish line, I will. And I'll do it smiling for I love this sport.” WOW.

Kristina all smiles :)

Amazing bling!

My tri coach (Carrie) is amazing in her own right. I don’t think anything scares this chick. She once told me that for a long time in her life she was told she “couldn’t” do things and now she takes the “can’t” and turns it into “can.” Carrie is an elite athlete, already been to the IM Kona World Championships and has big goals for returning to Kona multiple times. In addition to her own training she coaches over 70 athletes and puts up with my bullshit over and over again. Carrie races amazingly at IMTX and placed 6th in her age group. I’m certain she’ll try again this year for a Kona slot. After IMTX I know she could have been disappointed about not making it to Kona this time around, but told me “I’m so proud of what my body could do and how it performed. I had a great race.” WOW.

IMTX swim start

Only 5k left to go!

Running up the hill!!

I think one of the reasons these ladies WOW me is because this is NOT my natural way of thinking. When I’m faced with setbacks or when things don’t go the way I want or expect them to be, I assume it’s because I’m a failure or something is intrinsically wrong with something I did. That then spirals into self doubt and worry thoughts about what I could have or should have done better. Problem with this thinking (other than the obvious) is that it feeds on negativity and can suck the joy out of the sport.

Memorial Day weekend is always Just Tri camp weekend. Due to the fact that I’m racing next weekend, this recent weekend was a bit “lighter” for me and with some other things I had to get done, I was only at camp for one day. When I was there for that one day however I got to have dinner with teammates and hear a little pep talk from Carrie. She spoke about gratitude and about how there is ALWAYS something to be grateful for, even in the most challenging of times and circumstances. It’s true. And sometimes when I'm pissing and moaning for a bad training day or even a bad race, I need to remember that there are plenty of folks out there who would trade places with me in a second. And I need to be grateful.

So the entire team got little gratitude journals. Everyday we write about what we’re grateful for…..I actually used to do this in college, but for whatever reason stopped. I’m hoping to start again. It’s going to be a long year….IMAZ isn’t until November. There willl be ups and downs. And yet even with this recent challenging month…..there is plenty to be grateful for. Be Grateful. Be Brave.