Blogging Again, Naturally

Well, its been a long time since I have done a blog post but I want to get back to it so here goes! Sometimes my blog is a way for me to process my thoughts, sometimes its a confessional of my fears and successes and sometimes it is a chance to share my passion for running or triathlon.  I found myself last year with less to say I guess and I was not sure if blogging mattered anymore, it became a chore, one more thing I had to do do I gave myself permission to stop.  I am learning that it is OK just to stop doing something that does not work for you anymore. As they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder and I recently found I was missing blogging and sharing my passion.

I was recently interviewed by a writer named April for a blog. She posted on a Facebook site that she was looking to interview people who felt their hobby helped in their business.  I had written a blog post about that a few years ago so I reached out to her and she liked the idea.  It gave me a chance to review the blog and rewrite/update it with a few more concepts.  As I worked on it, I felt the fire inside ignite again and I was excited.  I hope I can turn it into a motivational talk sometime soon as I really feel my Ironman training made me a better business women.  My interview with April was so much fun and as we talked and I shared my passion for triathlon and my desire to inspire others to start.  By the time we stopped, she had enough material for her blog post and I had convinced her to sign up for a triathlon in 6 weeks!  I followed up with a bit of a program she could follow and I excited to say that she is getting it done and does her first triathlon on Aug 20th.  Here is a link to her blog post for Dragon's Den.

Last week I was in Whistler BC for a triathlon and while I was there, I was doing a bit of work.  I plan events as part of my work and was viewing venues and meeting contacts in the hope of getting a group there in the next few years.  On Monday, after my race I meet with Ginny to learn about her venue.  We had a great chat about my triathlon as well and she messaged me later that she ran that day and is looking at working towards a half marathon soon.  I love when this happens, when I share my passion about my sports and help others imagine themselves doing the same. We all need a cheerleader, people who supports and encourages us as we start out. I love this cheerleader role and I really want to continue doing this, I want to help others achieve their goals and believe in themselves and what they can achieve.  I am not sure what this will look like for me but I am excited to see how I take this and turn it into something.

I also had the chance to meet a group of ladies from a Facebook group I belong too.  It was so nice to meet these amazing athletes, from different places in the Pacific Northwest.  Meeting them was amazing, they are so inspirational.  It was so nice to spend time with them, to talk triathlon and training, the good, the bad and the really ugly we went through to get to this day.  We all went to the opening ceremony together and one of the many messages we received received that night was nothing on race day would go the way you expect it too.  They also told us to never stop, never quit and never give up and if we kept going we would achieve our goal.  Little did I know who true those two statements would be for many of us but it gave us the opportunity to talk about other races and I shared my Ironman day with them. Katie was doing the Ironman while the rest of us where doing the Ironman 70.3 (half the distance).  This was her first Ironman and Natalee and Liz were doing their first 70.3, I knew what first time nerves felt like.  It made me realize how far I have come in my triathlon journey, my journey is not yet done but I now have a lot of experience to use and to share with others and that makes me really happy.

These are some photos of some of the races I did recently as a bit of an update.