Rise Above

I always love to see athletes or teams rise to the occasion in competition and step up, when it really counts, when the chips are down, when its tough, and hard and yes…. painful. They rise to the occasion and rise above the unfavorable odds or circumstances. It is so admirable and motivating to see athletes face it and not crumble when it gets hard.

Its happened recently in sport with Meb wining the Boston Marathon. I was  putting together injured people that Monday when the historic race was taking place and could only read about later many of my friends watching in tears as an American won the Boston marathon for the first time in like 31years.  So inspiring, motivating and …..timely.  I went for a run that night!

The Blackhawks stepped it up, pulled through  and won the series after coming from behind to move on in the quest for another Stanley Cup. I confess I'm not a true hockey fan, I love football. However I have no problem admitting I've jumped on the BlackHawk bandwagon the last 2 seasons because they are Hot,  they fight for it, and they rock. It can't be that bad of a bandwagon to be cruising around on.

Last weekend I watched 10 year olds on the lacrosse field step up and come from a 5-1 deficit, not collapse or give up,  but fight  back to battle it out for a hard fought……. tie. Sure it was a tie, but the lesson to 10 yr olds was not to give up when behind 5-1, but to fight back with all you have.

Jack, staring it down

Rising above is facing head on your weaknesses, limitations and going for it. Its scary,  uncomfortable and often painful, but when you challenge yourself to deal with it, you are in the end stronger.  I've been faced with all kinds of opportunities this spring to rise above, look it square in the eye and keep moving forward.  

My Psimet team had a group team ride recently.   I had been planing on doing this for some time but, gulp had no idea it would be an 80 mile ride around Lake Geneva.  I haven't done a work out longer than a whopping  2 hours since …..well before Vegas World Champs 70.3, so maybe early August. Yet I really wanted to go ride with this very amazing group of women bike racers who the next week went to race the Joe Martin Stage Race and kicked butt. Coming out of the polar vortex of which I had barely gotten on a bike or ridden, I sucked it up, showed up, put my head down and rode. I suffered some at the end, due to lack of miles, but it in the end it was a win for me and am feeling stronger riding already.

PSIMET ladies  @ worlds largest Starbucks!

Anyone who knows me well recently, knows I haven't been swimming either, since yes, Vegas. I believe I swam 1 x in 2014, but recently decided to find some swim arms again and showed up to masters, and faced it head on. It might have been easier to go swim solo, a few times to get a little feel for the water again, test it out, but swimming solo is …….so boring. I went to masters jumped right  in and swam. I felt like I need to rest every 150, (and did hang on the wall a bunch) , but got through it with a smile on my face.

Yesterday, I found myself looking at a track workout to be done on a cold,  windy,  rainy day. I procrastinated getting ready to go drive to the track in the late afternoon, my only chance when Jack was off at lacrosse practice. If I have to wait to workout, it gets tough I can think of a million reasons not to do it, but I faced it,in the cold the wind and damp, stressing about my splits in the wind and  drove to the track faced that horrible feeling of trying to run fast on the track for the first time in cold wind, and in the end, I surprised myself! 

A cold windy Betty

Spring is here, (kind of )  things are green and growing in my back yard. I love seeing the things I planted a few years ago, take root, come back and eventually bloom into amazing flowers.  As a single mom now, I am facing a lot of new things that are sometimes scary. But every little opportunity I have to look scary things square in the eye, I give it my best to stare it down, and not walk away. It shapes you into something stronger and beautiful.

Last year's Lilacs