After nearly 8 months of not racing and countless attempts to write a blog explaining where I've been and what I've been going through, I think I'm ready to begin again.
2 years ago, I arrived at Wildflower not knowing what to expect and not knowing a single person. Little did I know how much my life would change. It was my first race as a Wattie Ink team member. For the first time in 6 years of racing I felt like I found "my people" and that I belonged.
This year things are different. I've taken an off-season for the first time in 8 years and for many reasons it's taken a long time to get back into the swing of things. At first I thought I'd take a month or two off and have everything figured out and I'd be rested and motivated. 8 months later I'm finally feeling rested and though I haven't been doing near the volume of training I had done in the past, I've certainly been busy and working hard at developing lasting change. I've learned to nourish my body with a much more balanced and sustainable approach to nutrition, rest, workload and even training. I reintroduced strength and mobility work, taking care of a few niggles that had bothered me for the last couple years. I've spent quality time with friends and family and am even working on a new business (so exciting!!)
One thing hasn't changed. That first year I felt like I finally belonged. This year I felt no different. It was difficult going into the event not really knowing what I would tell my teammates, I have been working on everything but triathlon and didn't have any races planned. Going into it I was worried about being judged. That didn't happen. Instead of feeling judged I felt included. We all go through ups and downs and we all have to deal with our shit when it catches up to us.
Spectating and helping out sponsors was well worth all 2600 miles of travel. My emotions went from - "triathlon is hard, why do I think this is fun?" - to "triathlon is hard, isn't it awesome!" The good news is that I ended on awesome and have started laying out some ideas for racing later in the season.
Thank you all for being awesome! I could not have made it this far without you (family, friends, teammates and sponsors) and I wouldn't have the courage to grow and change.