True Friends
Our friends’ influence us every day. We often become like the people we associate
with most. With big dreams come tough
challenges! During these times we often
discover how good our friends really are, or aren’t.
When I was in college, I hated running. I played 4 years of basketball and avoided
long distance running like a plague… until I came across the Leukemia Society
Team in Training opportunity to travel to Hawaii! I always wanted to go to Hawaii and I figured
if I could raise the money, then I could just walk the marathon. When I told some of my friends, they told me I
was crazy. I listened. Not only did I not make it to Hawaii, I didn’t
even try!
When I moved to Florida after college, I started gaining
weight since I didn’t have basketball conditioning to fall back on. I noticed a woman a few houses down from mine
running a lot, so I started running with her… more like jog-walking barely able
to make it 2 miles! So maybe my friends
were right, I must be crazy! I stuck
with it though – did a few 5ks and the run portion of sprint relays – always
passing out in the car on the way home.
Eventually, my friend helped me to complete my first sprint
tri (non-relay). Of course, it decided to storm at day, but the race went
on! Unfortunately, my other ½ (at the
time) decided not to show up so as I crossed the finish line I didn’t see
him. I kept looking… no luck.
Needless to say, that relationship didn’t work out.
The next few years, my training friends helped me prep for
my first ever half ironman. It wasn’t
pretty, but I did it all! Over the
years, my times were sliced-and-diced! I
went from a 6ish hour half Ironman to a sub-5 hour just about everywhere I went
all while working full time and going to school. The next other ½ (at the time) pushed me to
get a lot faster until one race he thought I beat him. At the finish, he told me I was moving out so
I laughed… he didn’t. And another one
bites the dust!
I felt I had plateaued and wasn’t making improvements. I was aching and was generally not having
much fun in the sport anymore so I took a break. In all my spare time working full time I
completed a doctoral program in Biomedical Sciences – many told me I couldn’t
do both. So what do I do? Both AND kept training for triathlons! I did have to cut back and ended up taking
off about 2 years from serious racing, but otherwise I learned a lot both in
and out of school. Like who would help
support me in this challenging time especially when my new other half deployed
to Afghanistan. One friend in particular
helped me more than any other! What made
it more important was that I didn’t have to ask for the help.
Throughout his deployment, I quickly learned he would be
there for me no matter what I decided to do.
He helped me study from Iraq and Afghanistan. He was proud of me when I beat him in a race
and I was proud of him when he beat me.
After a history of relationships that didn’t work out, I finally found
the one! Funny how it is during these
challenging times in life that you often find out who your true friends
are! It makes me wonder what life
would’ve been like if I was able to find such good friends that would support
me through all the tough times and challenging goals earlier in life?
Through triathlon, we meet a TON of wonderful people but
it’s hard to keep in touch with all of them, let alone which ones to reach out
to for training companionship no matter where we are in the world. One app that can help you find great friends
like these to be there when you are looking for a challenge is Activebudz. Download it here: Activebudz app And if you’re ever curious of who your real friends are – see how they
react to your next challenge!
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