Each Step is One in The Right Direction

Grateful

I am so grateful for the life that I have.

I shouldn't really be blogging. I should be finishing off that last assignment as tomorrow is the last day of school...Finally!

Yesterday I had the chance to listen to 10x Ironman Champion Lisa Bentley speak. She was so inspiring that my head hurts. I'll explain.

She was talking about how everything in life is in chapters. Life is just one big book and you have the chapters that are just so easy to read and you sail through them but eventually you want them to be over so you can turn off your light and go to sleep. Yeah. I believe it. Wouldn't it be boring if life was always perfect?

A chapter in your life could be injury. Then you turn the page to rehabilitation. A chapter could be training, and you turn the page to racing. I just think it makes so much sense. What a good analogy.

I want to tell you something that she said that really struck me. Now I probably won't do the story justice but it was a good one...It was about her best race, and it was the Ironman in Hawaii. Apparently her training had gone really well, and she was feeling like she could actually win the race. So, in Hawaii she wakes up with some chest infection or something and she was all pout pout, cry cry, Im not going to win the Hawaii Ironman because I have a chest infection.

Apparently they have meetings when you're like a proffessional athelete or something and she meets this woman who is doing the Hawaii Ironman as a fundraiser. She has 2 children who are dying of cystic fibrosis, and then she realized, "Wow, I am lucky. I am able to run and swim and bike. What the mom wouldn't do to see her children run to the end of the block or ride their bike 2km?" and then her whole attitude changed. She went out on the race course and she was going to do what she loved. What she didn't have physically she made up for in heart.

And she came in fourth. At 80%. And she loved every single minute what she was doing. Her husband mentioned to her that it was one of the windiest years. But she didn't remember it. She just remembered the 9hours doing (or something, Consider that a random guess) what she loved.

And I was like...Woah. She's right.

She also talked about how to get yourself through those mentally challenging days. When you have a good run, go home and write down what was magical about it? What made you feel like you could go forever, and put it in the magic box. When you have those tough runs you pull it out of the box.

She also said that you should make a list of your assests. When you have a tough run, that's another thing you can pull out....

I made a list of my assests, but in the interest of not boring you I have shortened it down. It may still bore you but whatever...

1. I am able. I can physically run
2. I have a great support system
3. My family loves me
4. I have great friends
5. I can run and feel free
6. I have a safe place to live
7. I am getting an education
8. I got accepted into the program I want
9. I am strong.
10. I am determined and I don't give up very easily
11. I have money to buy good Running Shoes, and clothes, and extra things like my Garmin, HRM and Ipod.
12. I have people who want to see me succeed (Now atleast)
13. I am sensible.
14. I am loved
15. I love myself (But not in a narsassitic king of way...Which is more than a lot of people can say)

I think that a lot of people don't realize how lucky they are. This is what I love to do, and I can do it, so I am going to do it, even when the going gets tough. You too should write a list, and if you are comfortable with it, share it!

When you don't feel like running, go out and run for 10 minutes and if you still feel like crap, go back, because everyone deserves 10 minutes.

Throw You're Heart Over The Bar and Your body will follow. I really like that one. A lot.

What else. I think that's it. This woman is inspiring. She ran the Hawaii Ironman one year and DNF'd at 10miles in the marathon cause her coach noticed her favouring one side of her body. Turns out she had done it with a ruptured appendix, which apparently probably ruptured on the Tuesday.

I want to be a proffessional athlete. It's not gonna happen but a girl can dream.

In other news,
I want to give props to my mom who has lost 20lbs in 4 weeks. I am proud of her, even though I am not the most supportive of all daughters, occassionally bringing junk food into the house. One of my sisters isn't very supportive of it, shes liike 'Well aren't you going to treat yourself once in a while and my mom was like 'I don't consider that treating myself, I consider it clogging my arteries'

I love how her whole perspective has changed. She's gonna do it!

School is over tomorrow. Then on Saturday night we're going camping for fathers day and swimming all day. I'll get a run in too because there will be no more homework. Just studying. I think I have ADD though cause i Can't study for very long.

Saturday is also my last day at work. I am so excited:0) Auntie Cyndy here I come.

Ok guys, Cherish the gift of sport. I'll be back tomorrow with a post that says "HURRAY ITS DONE"

...maybe I don't have to post;0)

God Bless
Tiger

posted by AddictedToEndorphins @ 11:10 AM