THANK YOU!!!

I would like to thank Kate Garsson from TriCal in taking interest in my story of why I am doing the Treasure Island Triathlon and for graciously providing me with a Polor Womens Fitness watch (my first "sponsorship"). Kate has also informed me that my story is going to be told at SFGATE.COM and on their website www.tricalifornia.com. I would also like to thank Dorette Franks for also taking interest in my story and telling it so graciously. Dorette is a 4 time Ironman (Ironwoman) and is training for an Ultraman coming up in the next 4 weeks, she is an inspiration as well. If you don't know what an Ultraman is, it's worth googling... You can read her article regarding my car accident/training at http://www.moremarin.com/more_sweat/2010/07/splash-and-dash-biggest-loser-contestants-others-get-a-second-chance.html

My story being told at the public level is very exciting to me! Essentially, once my accident happened, I had to make two choices, to either sulk in my self pity and self-doubt or to turn my life around and maximize my full potential along this new path. Life is FULL of decisions, and this was just one of them, regardless of how tragic or traumatic my accident may have been. The journey has been long, and still continues, but each day gets better and challenging myself through Triathlons has helped maximize the capacity of my "comprimized" airway.

This Saturday I will be celebrating life at the Treasure Island Triathlon. The thought of the swim alone causes me enough anxiety but so did facing the adversity of my car accident, and if I can over come that, I can swim .9 miles in the freezing cold bay. Sometimes I get sad knowing that I could be faster, but my goal is to focus on the present (no "what if's"), realize I might not be doing Tri's if it weren't for my accident and just to have fun and concentrate on my breathing. I am going to be the best I can be, not the BEST triathlete out there (because we all know I am a far cry from that ;) )

I think when we focus on being THE BEST indstead of focusing on being OUR BEST we lose sight of the purpose of being. The purpose of being is not to out swim the swimmer next to you or out run or bike someone else and it's certainly not to out perform you classmate on the most recent exam. The purpose of life is to be your very best and try your best at whatever the task at hand may be. When we focus on being our personal best, we are putting our energy in the right place and the rest graciously works itself out. Who cares about how fast someone else swims, bikes or runs... there will always be someone who is faster, smarter and wiser, no matter how hard your train or study. We are taught all of our lives to outperform our peers, co-workers and sometimes even friends or family. Instead of focusing on outperformance, I would be willing to wager if we focus on our own performance and our own personal best, we'd find a lot more peace and happiness within ourselves, which can only lead to better performance and life satisfaction. If you focus on being your best and capitalize on your strengths, you'll come to find there was a little more inside of you than you previously knew exsisted, and then some.