I have thought of giving up on my 70.3 Miami in the past week. Or two. Because the training, in the home stretch (24 days to go), is unraveling. The streak of bad workouts has kind of rolled into some superstitious streak of bad life luck, an ominous crabby contraption that has spread around me and my family.
[I promise to write a funny blog soon.]
[Okay, okay. Fine.. I got a little something. So today, I was at the gym where I did a balls out 25 minute swim at lunch (because that’s all the time I had), and as I was walking from the shower, in just a bitty towel, I slipped. I did not fall. But during the slip, I showed all my goodies to a host of Korean women in the sauna. Who bless them, did not even flinch.]
Okay, so anyway. The crabbiness felt like a last straw of sorts, when I came home from work to find my baby girl looking like this:
Some weird, freak bug bite, says the Doctor. It should be better pretty quickly with Benedryl. Four hours later, it’s not better, and they’re calling in antibiotics and talking about CT scans in the AM. Worried about eye damage, or worse. What? A bug bite?
Then my parent’s received the bad news that they are officially displaced as their house is being gutted from the fire.
And more personal and other related crap just started flying around my life like the scene in Gremlins 2 when the gremlins took over that office building and started singing New York, New York.
More than I can post on a blog, I suppose… even for me. Instead, I bring you some song.
So tonight, I’m on the phone with my mom, and we’re both crying, and I mentioned that I should stop whining about nothing… that at least I have a house to go to….at which point, my mom starts crying more because she doesn’t. (Yes, I feel horrible for my inconsideration at this point).
Then we realize that she at least owns the dirt on which it sits – and a new interior is essentially being built. Afterall, yesterday was the first Tuesday in October. Meaning thousands of people were just foreclosed upon in Georgia. Turns out, one such family is someone very close to us.
So I have a house that I don’t own, but I live in.
My parents had a house they owned outright, but it burned.
And my friend had a house Tuesday, and now she doesn’t. At all.
[So….in case you aren’t following… that makes me the luckiest out of the three.]
Everyone is struggling it seems. So much struggling, so much pain. Everywhere I turn, someone has it so much worse, and is suffering (real suffering).
Then I find people, who in the worst of it, have smiles, and faith, and never complain. There’s Giggles, who I’ve talked about before. Beautiful young woman who lost her leg in a boating accident. Many of the Getting2Tri Foundation athletes are just like her.
I recently met an awesome young mother, Janelle, who suffered the loss of her leg a year ago. I was interviewing her for a GOTRIbal article I am writing, and I asked her about the anger, the sadness – how long after she lost her leg did she become sad? When did she get angry?
I’m going to post the link to the article on here (if I can get my act together and finish it ever), but basically, Janelle said, that despite the limb loss and the pain, she really didn’t have a chance to be sad. Because she was alive. And she had children who depended on her.
I needed to hear that.
Yes, I am dying to finish Miami and have accomplished a goal bigger than my dreams. But I have responsibilities. And as Coach Monster reminds me… family is what matters.
For me, triathlon is just a little glue that makes my life have a little more goop. I like goop. But the goop may have to wait if life, liberty and baby monkeys are being threatened.Fingers crossed that your storms shall pass as well. Because lawd knows, it seems like we’ve all got some rotten weather lately.
3 Responses
Ok, in my family we have a French expression: "Jamais deux sans trois." It means bad things come in threes. You have 1. sucky training workouts (I'm paraphrasing) 2. parents' house 3. daughter's bug bite.
So there's your three bad things. Karma should be ready to move on now. Sending good vibes your way!
Keep your head up! Sometimes we all just need a good cry, but what I do when I'm feeling like you are is go to youtube and watch Ironman finisher videos or go watch Team Hoyt video. It will help you to stay motivated. Hope things get better for you and you see happy training days again!!
Ok, in my family we have a French expression: "Jamais deux sans trois." It means bad things come in threes.
You have 1. sucky training workouts (I'm paraphrasing) 2. parents' house 3. daughter's bug bite.
So there's your three bad things. Karma should be ready to move on now. Sending good vibes your way!
Keep your head up! Sometimes we all just need a good cry, but what I do when I'm feeling like you are is go to youtube and watch Ironman finisher videos or go watch Team Hoyt video. It will help you to stay motivated. Hope things get better for you and you see happy training days again!!