A Fantastic Day in Rome (Georgia)

We spent half of yesterday in beautiful Rome, Georgia at our girl’s first cross country meet of the season. Since she only raced once last year before missing her season to a severe stress fracture, this was going to be her 2nd ever meet! All of us were excited, but nervous about the possibility of more injury.

It turned out to be a spectacular day for everyone….our daughter, us, our teams!

First Race

The first race of the day was an open race. My husband and I decided to run it. My husband had a blood sugar dip right before the start, so I lined up by myself. There were middle schoolers as well as post high school runners. I noticed our mechanic’s son near me. He is one of the fastest runners in Atlanta, and an xc coach. He had his team there for the meet, and decided to run. When the gun went off, it seemed like the whole field of runners except me was sprinting. I noticed I was one of the oldest runners, and just prayed not to finish last!

The course was beautiful and rolling. But I went slower than I’d hoped. I felt ashamed of how slowly I was going. Especially with our whole team plus parents there! After passing by the 2 mile mark, I saw our teams lined up on one  side of the course, many parents lined up on the other. Oh crap. They were cheering so loudly, and I felt so embarrassed of my slowness that I didn’t even look up as I approached them. As I neared them, it occurred to me that no one knew how slowly i was running; they were just happy to see me running. I looked up and waved and smiled! The girls had made up a cheer/chant/dance. It was so cute and It made me so happy! 

Today a few of them recreated the cheer at my house and allowed me to film it. I have already watched/shared SOO many times! 

Here you go:

Second Race

Girls varsity. 2 great things about this race: our daughter hit her goal, and so did her best running buddy!

Our daughter’s goal was to finish the race, and finish pain free! Her time wasn’t great, but she finished! And without pain!! There will be a second Race this season!

At least as exciting is the fact that our girl’s bff (the one I wrote about 2 posts ago), PR’d by 20 seconds! I couldn’t be more proud if she were my own!! She changed her strategy, and went out faster than normal. It worked! And the icing on this one is that she was able to beat her arch rival for the very first time! 

Third Race

Boy’s varsity. Our fastest boy is only a sophomore. He had an outstanding freshman year. He looked awesome yesterday, and won the entire race! 15:59. It was thrilling to watch how much he won by. 

Fourth Race

JV girls and boys combined.  This was a crowded race. It took a long time for the racers to space out. 

It also took a while for the race to finish. While we watched the last runners finish, we heard a loud cheer go up as the last runner and his bike escort appeared. As he ran by, I saw that he was a Downes Syndrome young man.
Oh my goodness…how inspiring. Sappy to say, but I shed a tear on that one.

What an amazing sport and an awesome day!

Here is a pic of the the parents/family supporters…lots of us!

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Running, Confidence, Dressing Nicely and Business Success

Hello. It’s been a while since I posted, and although I regret that it’s been a while, there is a good reason. We’ve been super busy at work. And let me say, when you own your own business, busy is way preferable to not busy!

We are having high sales this month. But the even better news is that we have been creating opportunities which could lead to ongoing increased sales. Some of these opportunities haven’t panned out yet, so I hope I’m not jinxing things by mentioning them!

So, there are a number of factors contributing to us being able to create opportunities, but I just want to talk about the ones related to running.

Confidence Through Running

I started running several years ago. And one of the best things about running for me is that it makes me feel strong. I’m sure it’s the same for you. But once I realized I could run x number of miles, or race in a variety of distances, it made me see that I’m pretty strong. This gave me more confidence. I learned that I could do more than I thought. And the every day work problems lost significance .

Dressing Nicely 

As my body transformed through running, I had to start buying new clothes. I’m too cheap to spend much on clothes. So for years, even though I was now in good shape, I didn’t dress nicely. Instead of dressing like the owner of my business, I dressed like the delivery lady. 

That all changed a few years ago when I got a second job at a women’s clothing store. Through working there, and helping ladies with their wardrobes, I began to see that dressing nicely is another way to build confidence. The fact that employees are entitled to shop at the “company store”, where everything is $5 or $10 helped me transform my wardrobe quickly and frugally. 

Now, when I go see our business customers or prospects, I’m not preoccupied with feelings of inadequacy. I know I look nice, so I can concentrate on building our business.

Petty I know, but I’m convinced that dressing more nicely is helping me build our business.

Goal Setting

The other way that running is helping to build our business is through goal setting. I think all of us runners can easily appreciate the process of setting a goal – like  running a marathon – and following the steps to achieve the goal. But as business owners, I’ve got to confess that we’d become a bit lazy about setting goals.

We had a tough month in July, and it made me refocus on the goal setting. At first, I didn’t have any concrete goals. I only knew that we needed more sales. I got a pen and paper and wrote “we need more business” over and over on the page. (Did I mention we were slow?)

Now I’m not going to say that we magically got more business because i wrote that sentence four times! But I will say that  actually writing those words made me focus on ways to go about getting more business.

We strategized and came up with a real plan to help us get more sales.

All this, thanks to running!

Now wish us luck!!

Devised by Me: A New Training Plan for 2016

I call it the ‘I Want’ training plan.  And it means just that, I’m going to do whatever I want!

Without any big races on the horizon (like last year this time, I was marathon training),

Medal from last year’s marathon

 

and without a burning desire to plan any big races, I’m just going to train in ways that make me happy.

Here’s a for instance…yesterday it was warm outside.  My rational brain said ‘Oh you better run outside…it may be raining the rest of the week.’ But, I didn’t feel like it.   So instead, I went to our gym, and rode on the Arc Trainer for 7.2 miles.  My hair still sweat, so I know I got a good work out.  Plus I had total control of the TV remote, and watched silly shows like Love it or List it, and Judge Judy!

Here’s another for instance.  On Sunday (after a Saturday run with some intentional speedwork), I decided this was going to be an easy junk mile run, or if you want to sound more fancy, a LSD (long slow day).

 

Blah BLah BLah…This guy seems a little uptight!  Who cares if you’re out for head clearing junk miles!

But, toward the end of my run, I started feeling pretty good.  I sped up and finished my 9th mile FAST.  Because that’s what I wanted!

One of the best things about running and training is the goal setting.  So don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to set goals.  Right now, the goal that is exciting me is achieving a weekly/annual mileage.  I’ve set these type of goals for the past 2 years, and enjoyed achieving/surpassing them.

No I didn’t run 70,000 miles this year!

I’ll keep you posted if I change my training plan.  And check out this site for similar sentiments, and my inspiration for today’s post! http://slackerrunner.com/

 

Today I am trying a  link up with  Patty, Erika, and Marcia!  Thank you ladies!!