Triathlon- you can do hard things. Change your mindset, and Change your life!

 On Saturday September 18, 2021, I did my first official triathlon.  I was so nervous and scared. Some of my fears happened and some of my strength came through.  Let me take you back to 10 years ago or so.  When I was working in Boy Scouts.  Every year in April, young men from all over the state would come to our small community and do a triathlon.  I never dreamed I would want to do one.  Then one year as I saw people getting ready for the triathlon, I thought maybe one day I will do that.  One day when I lose my weight.  I didn't think much about it through the years until, 2 years ago when one of my good friends told me she was going to do a triathlon.  I thought wow, good for her, maybe one day I will do that too.  I was losing weight and knew that if I set a goal for the next year, I would keep the commitment I made to my self and I would do it!  So that day I told my friend, Hey I'm going to do this with you next year.  That next year came and so did Covid, cancelling everything.  That didn't stop me,  when I was stuck working from home, I decided to start riding my bike once a day to get out of my house for one and two to start getting into shape.  My youngest son came on bike rides with me.  It was a great bonding moment.  Then summer hit, and it was hot here in the Arizona desert but I still got up very early to ride my bike and I took up swimming.  I did not like swimming.  In fact I hated it and was about to quit but I knew I really wanted to do a triathlon so I tried different ways to swim.  I just hated putting my face in the water.  So one day I decided that I would try to swim on my back.  Oh yay! That was so much better.  I swam and swam on my back looking up at the bright blue sky and finding a way to love swimming.  Last year, I worked hard to do a triathlon, the only thing was, no body was going to have one.  That is when I decided to do one on my own.  I had a friend say she wanted to do one with me, so we started training together.  We created a plan and figured out our bike route and walking route.  The day we had planned to do it, she could not do it, but I decided I was going to go ahead and do my own triathlon.  Guess what I did!  It was great, there were a few people that came to cheer me on.  It was amazing to me how strong I was and how supportive so many people were for me. I had a good friend and life coach, tell me she would do the bike ride with me. Another good friend brought water bottles and people to cheer me on in the hardest parts of the bike ride.  My three walking buddies did the walk with me that day.  I was in awe by all the support for me to accomplish my goal.   That day was a great day!  I learned that I could do hard things!

This year my friend and I decided to train and do the triathlon for reals this year.  I was a little afraid because I've put on some weight and knew I was not at my top performance. I knew there were things I would do very slow.  But I also knew that I could do it all, I did it before, I could do it again.  We tried to plan it so that maybe we could bike ride together.  That didn't happen because even though I started swimming before her she finished way before me.  She is a rock star at swimming.  Anyways, I started my bike ride following an older gentleman.  He  was one that does these things over and over.  Anyways, he easily pulled away from me.  That left me riding the 15 mile bike ride on my own.  I was alone with my own thoughts.  Crazy thoughts like I can't do this, I'm not in good enough shape for this, I'm going to be in last place, what was I thinking, kept coming into my head as I climbed some hard hill and had people pass me the whole way.  Then just as I would feel down someone on the other side of the road or someone standing cheering the participants on would yell, "You got this!"  At one point there was a man standing on the side of the road that pointed to me and Yelled, "You Are My Hero!"  He had so much enthusiasm that there was nothing left to do but accept his enthusiasm as my own and push on.  It was so invigorating! It reconfirmed to me that we need others to cheer us on, not tear us down.   We need that cheering system.  In the end when I was on my walk, I was tired and could feel some blisters forming on my feet.  I looked up and saw my friend who had finished maybe 10 min before me, she was walking back to me so she could finish the race with me.  She is amazing!  So Lori thank you for being a supportive friend.  Thank you for helping me win my race.  Thank you to the man that said I was his hero, Thank you to my wonderful husband for supporting me in all my crazy endeavors.  Thank you to Christy for always cheering me on.  Thank you to everyone that cheers me on.  

The biggest lesson I learned while doing this triathlon was "change your mindset and change your life!"  If you want to achieve your goals, you have to see yourself doing just that.  You have to set your mind to know you can do it.  I'm learning to work smarter not harder and sometimes we just need to take a deep breath and listen.

Dream big my friends and follow those dreams, if you change your mindset, you can do hard things and change your life.  Remember to find joy in this journey we call life.  There is no better way to do it!  Talk to you next week.