11 months

Sunday marked 11 months since my surgery–hard to believe it’s been that long. Sometimes it seems like yesterday and other times it seems like a distant memory. I marked the anniversary with a 100 miles bike ride in preparation for Ironman Chattanooga–my first century ride but certainly not my last.

I learned a lot on those 100 miles…lessons I have learned over and over these past 11 months, lessons worth learning again and again.

1) Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. There’s a goal and you want to get there and it’s not always going to be easy, but you do it anyway. Some people may use different acronyms to more succinctly articulate this like DBAP or HTFU. The big goals like walking without crutches or completing an Ironman have a lot of grin and bear it moments.

2) It is so much more fun to do life with friends. We are all on different journeys but for various reasons we have moments when those journeys are close enough to spend some time with each other–similarly on a ride where you each have your own goals and plans, you may spend some time alone but then a friend pulls up beside you for a couple minutes and you chat and it takes your mind of the pain or heat or hills. I’ve had so many people pull up beside me for a couple of minutes, hours, days this past year during my recovery and it has made all the difference in helping me to continue to move forward and make progress.

3) Positive self talk really works as does negative self talk. When say you can’t do something, it’s pretty certain that you never will do it. It’s already been decided. Basically the end of the story. But when you tell yourself you can, you just might. I’ve been in some dark places thee last 11 months and wanted to give up many times, but each time I was able to get over the hump by looking back at what I’ve already accomplished and telling myself I CAN DO THIS. That very phrase is what got me up the seven miles of climbing up Jones Vaughn Creek 4 different times on Sunday.

I hope these lessons can help you in accomplishing your big dreams, too!

PS-Thanks to the 22 folks who have joined me in using this race to say TAKE THAT TUMOR! For more information, check out this page. Just got some great info about the study that I will be posting soon as well.