A Tale of Two Sides of a See-Saw

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."*

For me, 2013 was the year of the see-saw.  On  one hand, my shoulder hurt the majority of the time to some degree.  (There were some days that were better than others and some I would have said it didn't hurt, but for the most part it did.)  On the other hand, I trained for and completed what is being called the  world's hardest Iron Man race (WTC -MDot- Iron Man…I am certain there are other, harder, 140.6 races out there.)   

On one hand I ONLY raced five times all year.  On the other hand, I completed my longest race ever. 

On one hand I'm fairly certain I trained less in terms of number of days but also fairly certain I trained more total hours.  

This has been my best year and my worst year in terms of being an athlete.  But the truth is I think part of the reason I'm going to say the scale is tipped in the direction of "best" is BECAUSE of the weight of the "worst".  The fact that my shoulder has been such an issue ALL YEAR LONG forced me to really be intentional about how I trained.  It forced me to listen to my body.  It forced me to see that I AM an athlete.  I am NOT a quitter.  I DO persevere in the face of struggle.  I didn't let a little pain stand in my way. I overcame a lot of obstacles this year in order to have what I wanted in the end.  This shoulder thing has sent me FLYING instead of weighing me down!

I don't think I could be more thankful for what this year has taught me.

I raced five times this year.  The first and last races were both 5Ks. Then there was one 10K, 1 sprint tri, and IMLT.   I had GREAT times at each one, both on the clock and otherwise.  I did set new PRs in all but the 5K and earned a podium spot twice!  All with a messed up shoulder!!  God has been very good to me this year!

It's funny, when I look back at my January 2013 "Looking Ahead" post, I didn't even really want to talk about the shoulder "thing."  I thought I would deal with it in January and it would be done.  Well…here I am a year later looking at surgery next week and knowing it's going to be months before I can put this "thing" behind me.

The see saw is about to be pulled off the fulcrum and used as a bat!  2014, ready or not, HERE I COME!!!

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!