Race Week
The quiet mornings. Progress. The long days. Progress. The moments where you have to choose belief over doubt. Progress.
It's never one big moment. It's the stacking of all of them. Day after day, choice after choice. That’s what is carrying me to the start line this weekend.
When I was working at Froedtert Hospital, I had a patient who had a rare skin condition that left painful sores all over her body. Walking short distances, even just 10ft, was a challenge. She lived in poverty, and her care was often inconsistent- not because she didn't care, but because life made it incredibly hard. She relied on ambulance transport just to make it to her appointments. Getting out of her home wasn't simple. Nothing about her situation was easy, and yet she showed up. Not perfectly. Some days she arrived with bandages ripped, wounds oozing, toilet paper wrapped around her legs attempting to take the place of a proper dressing. We'd spend the visit cleaning her wounds, and getting her back on track. Not every time. Sometimes our whole appointment was problem solving her access to care, or untangling whatever life had thrown at her that week and sometimes she just wanted some juice and someone to listen. This might not sound like your typical physical therapy visit, but healing isn't always so clinical- it's just about quiet moments being heard. When she could, she made it a point to be there. She was stacking her days too. Just fighting harder for each one than most of us will ever have to.
One day I returned to work from racing the Ironman World Championship in Kona. She didn't really know what an Ironman was, but she was curious. She asked me to tell her about it. So, I told her it’s a swim, bike, run, and it took me 9 hours and 24 minutes.
She looked at me and said: "A whole shift? You be running for a whole shift AND you got overtime! Girl, we better get movin’.” We both laughed. But it stuck with me. In that moment, she reframed everything.
Through pain, through barriers most of us will never fully understand, through circumstances that made even getting out the door feel impossible, she kept stacking days.
We all have a start line. Maybe it's a race, a project deadline, a big presentation, or a decision you've been building toward for months. Right before it arrives, doubt can show up with it.
You haven't done enough. You're not ready. What if it falls apart?
BUT, what if it doesn’t? What if it ALL works out? ( I prefer to live in that space )
Progress was never about being perfect. It was never about one defining moment. It's about showing up. Again and again. Stacking days when it's easy, but more importantly, when it's NOT.
As I head into race week, all of those stacked days, every quiet morning, every long day, every moment I chose belief over doubt, they are what brought me to this point- to the start line.
She fought for every step. I get to run! …and swim and bike :)
That's not just progress. That's everything!
Thank you for following this journey. It means more than you know to have you in my corner through every early morning and every hard day.
If you want to follow along on race day, Ironman Texas goes off on April 18th at 6:30 AM CT. You can watch the live broadcast on YouTube. Link below - I would love to have you there cheering from wherever you are!
See you at the finish line!