While our world struggles to stay physically healthy some struggle mentally. For many, workouts and racing are a form of stress relief. During this immensely stressful time we are tasked to stand still, lay low with no physical contact and no end date in sight. We watch our family and friends struggle and wait…
March 12th was sunny in Puerto Rico and that morning I set out for my pre race OWS and run. It was Thursday and my tenth 70.3 was to take place Sunday the 15th.
By that afternoon the governor had spoken about canceling all events over 250 people so I knew it was only a matter of time before Ironman had reached the athletes about the news. To be honest I wasn’t surprised or upset. This was the right decision; the world now had a major problem with the rapid spreading virus and racing could have made things so much worse. But as the days went on so did death and disease counts, people losing their jobs, stay in place orders were set and more races being canceled. A sadness started. Impeding doom. A loss; no goals. Life as I had known it only one week before was now up in the air like tiny molecules. There was no sense of control and definitely not enough answers.
Quarantine, corona virus, COVID-19, toilet paper & Tiger King. These were the headlines in the news and so I began my Tiger King marathon.
It dawned on me “with everything going on in the world and with Carole Baskin’s husband possibly being fed to tigers, I need another focus.”
And so I went on autopilot; I stopped triathlon training as I knew it and I started to train for fun. For fun? Yes, for the love of it. To get the respect for the sport and the respect for the distance back. I tried to remember why I started my multi-sport journey in the first place. Going back to 2007, I was a single mom of 2 young kids who saw an ad for a local duathlon. I didn’t have a bike. I had never run before (Let’s not even talk about swimming) but it was a challenge for me to see if I could.
Now years later after a few marathons, many 70.3’s, a world championship and an Ironman I asked myself this: “can I exercise for the love of the sport without the competing mindset?”
{insert mind blow here}
I think I can. No splits, no segments. No timing. No set distances. No joke- it’s harder than you think but today I’m healthy and I’m not being fed to a tiger so I can do this.
Basically waking up everyday now is choosing a positive mindset, which is even hard for me. It’s different, I don’t have the fire of competition in my eyes but I’m learning to re-love myself and my body for what it has done and what it can do. It means forgiving myself for times I couldn’t make goals. It means looking around more on a bike and run. It means keeping my body moving for when racing happens again. It means knowing that next race, however I do, will be different and that much sweeter because I know what I’m capable of.
A few thoughts and observations during my quarantine journey while trying to stay positive:
1.) #coronatrolls They are everywhere on social media. Right now everyone is a medical professional and a scientist; aren’t you lucky. (Eye roll)
2.) My array of cooking skills isn’t as vast as I thought so now I’m getting my amazing recipes from Snoop Dog’s cookbook. #foshizzle
3.) My teenagers now think that my new career path is definitely a P.E. teacher. My kids can be little lazy but don’t worry, I’ll fix this or into the tiger cage they go. (Also, I’m pretty sure I’m getting a whistle for Christmas)
4.) Swimming might be interesting when the pools open up because waxing has been put off. I might be a trend setter or my swim coach might accuse me of trying to smuggle Bozo-The-Clown in my speedo. Can you say ginger-Chewbacca?
5.) Last but certainly not least, I can’t wait to see everyone. I can’t wait to high-five, hug and hangout post race. I can’t wait to see the faces of first-time finishers. I can’t wait for the race pain, the metal taste in my mouth when I push it on the run, the fire and the drive to get to the finish line.
But right now I’m going to choose to stop and smell the roses. I’m going to try and exercise my “happy” and maybe look at the sky more rather than my watch, distance myself to keep others healthy and #washmyhands
Ginger Triathlete 