I seem to be drawn to women working through injury. (You know who you are – xmooch!) I am lucky. My body is working. But being in the ugliest days of a start up is like being smacked down. Fear, disappointment, frustration, aloneness overshadow the reward.
The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That’s real glory.”
– Vince Lombardi
In her third guest post, @SwimBikeMom pulls a quote form Chrissie to power her up….
I have only two more weeks until my boot comes off. I broke my 5th metatarsal bone in my right foot back in February. Allegedly, I am free of the evil grey boot in a handful of days. I thought I would use the broken foot time to swim and lose weight, but really, the best I could do was avoid going complete insane. I can’t believe the time has come to get back into training.
I have been told that the recovery on this particular injury is unknown. The doctor could x-ray me and say: go forth and run like the wind. Or, she could look at me and say: back into the boot with you.
I am scared. I will admit it. I am scared that I will receive bad news about my foot, that it healed weird and I will walk with a limp forever, and never run again. Then I realize that is a stupid fear, because some people out there have real problems, and for me to whine about a foot is bordering on rude.
But then I fear that I will not have the strength, the gusto and the mental toughness to make it through training again. To get to my first 70.3 took so much training, dedication and work, and that race was hard. Very hard. I feel like I will be starting from the ground up, even though I have been assured by many that it will come back quickly.
Finally, I fear my own failures. I fear that I will disappoint myself. I want to do my second 70.3 in September. Can I do it? Will I be able to?
So with all these negative fears bumping around in my head, I re-read an article that Chrissie Wellington wrote for CNN, where she wrote
“If we let our head drop, our heart drops with it. Keep your head up, and your body is capable of amazing feats.”
Just what I needed to hear about now. Sure, I can admit that I am scared. But I will keep my head up, look the fear in the face, and keep moving forward towards my next finish line.
I have no doubt Meredith will come back. She’s an athlete. She knows how fierce she feels when she shows up at that start line. She is surrounded by a world of women cheering her on. What more do you need?
