With a Little Help From my Friends

So I am slowly getting back into training, slowly being the key word.  I know it will take a while to be back to full training and I am OK with that, my body and mind need time to get over Ironman and I have until the end of September to have some fun and find my motivation again.  I have a marathon at the end of November so I am still doing my long slow runs, I did 20k yesterday and will keep adding weekly and adding more weekday workouts as I feel like it.  My friends are checking in on me, offering to run or talk or both as I find my way back and it helps so much that they are there.

One thing I have been doing is sharing my story with others, this week I had the chance to speak to the 5k and 10k clinic at the Running Room. Someone asked me when I became a motivational speaker and that surprised me, I don't think I am. I am not a great public speaker, I am getting better but I am still not comfortable doing it and I am not sure my story is that special. What I do know is that a lot of people helped me along the way and if I can repay that now my inspiring others to try something new, to put themselves first or leave their comfort zone,  I am happy.  I get so much back from other runners, they inspire me daily, I have learned about the courage and heartbreak from a mother whose son committed suicide and how she copes and honors him through triathlon, others who have serious illnesses and keep training to prove that it does not control them, they control their lives.  I have meet men and women who have been told their whole life they are not athletic, they are too slow, too fat, too lazy to do anything but they do it anyway.

What I have learned is that we are all capable of so much and we are all capable of inspiring others around us, we are all motivational speakers.  Our stories do not need to be heroic or full of struggles but they need to come from our heart and we need to share them generously with others.  We all need a little help from our friends at one time or another, friends we have known for a long time, new friends we just met or friends we have not met yet but they will come into our lives just when we need them too. I have friends on Facebook that I have never met and they have helped me, inspired me, motivated me so much and my life is richer because of it.  I believe that as runners and triathletes we honor, support and inspire others because it is our way of inspiring ourselves and we all need some inspiration now and again.