Archives for August 2017

I always believed that Rachel would make it. Or maybe that’s just what I wanted to believe because the alternative was unimaginable. The first thing you hear people say when someone dies from cancer is ‘but they fought so hard’ as if it was so simple. Because you want it to be that simple. But it’s not true. And it’s not real. People can fight with every cell in their being and they can still die.

And even now, as I write about death, every time I even write the word it’s like my heart is being suffocated by the great weight of things that can’t be true, but still are. Rachel leaves behind her husband Tim and her three boys: Liam (13), Soren (8) and Lindsay (4). ‘Leaves behind’ is a cruel phrasing, as though she had a choice.

I can only hope that her absolute love for her beautiful family will be the bedrock that they can build on in years to come.

Just two weeks ago Rachel asked me about getting started with running again. That was Rachel. Fearless. Determined. Passionate. And inclusive. She wanted everyone included. In our community, Rachel was a friend, a coach, a mentor and a cherished part of our team.

” Rachel was my coach and gave me the confidence to achieve my dream. My love and thoughts are with the family.”

“Rachel was my running coach. Rachel’s support in that group and since then have made a difference to me – thank you Rachel for contributing to making my life better.”

The community wanted to do something for Rachel and her family, so this weekend we are doing a virtual 3km run in her honour because it was her favourite distance. And we are asking anyone who is able to donate to support her family in this difficult time. If you would like to meet up with others for your run, pop into the community group and see who is running in your area.

I hope that you will join us.

Every week, on a Monday I write down my priority list. Some things are things that I do every week, some things are specific to that week, some things are pie in the sky I hope I get time to do that. After I've made my list I prioritise them starting at one and going down from absolutely has to be done to it will be nice if I get time.

Then, I make a grid underneath, with the five days but I don't start putting in those priorities straight away. Then I write down my training sessions. The morning ones are easy enough, because they are before school so I'm not really cutting into any time there. And the long run is on the weekend. But I do have three weights sessions and usually two runs to fit into my day time schedule. I've started putting them in first, before anything else.

For awhile, I didn't. They came last. But the thing is, there is always more things I could be doing. ALWAYS. There's never an end to it. I'm not complaining, because I love that. I love working for myself. I love working with people. I love that this is Week 1 of August Learn to Run and Week 12 of May Learn to Run and I have the great privilege of seeing people at the start and at the culmination of their first training cycle. I wouldn't trade that for anything. But, like anything running your own business comes with a slather of boring as batshit administrative stuff that has to be done as well. Like accounts, like scheduling advertising and social media posts, like analysing data and updating the website software. The very necessary, but very un-sexy side of running a business.

So there was a time where I would schedule in what ever needed to be done first: Operation Move stuff and mum stuff and I don't want the house to look like a slum stuff and then wherever I could fit 'my' things is where they went. And you know, nothing major happened for that to change. I don't know what exactly changed or shifted but I had a few goals that were just not congruent with 'if I can fit it in'. I knew I wanted to run six days a week. And to make that happen, I was going to have to make some changes. One of those changes was doubling up on my Crossfit days by running afterwards. It was challenging at first, but now I really love it. And another one of those changes was making room on Tuesdays and Thursdays for extra runs during the day and working the rest of my schedule around that.

I've always been a pretty comfortable 5 day a week runner, but I just really wanted to see what I was capable of if I went for something slightly outside of my comfort zone. And I think even more than that, I wanted to really start prioritising my own training and not have it be as an afterthought. I wanted to make it a priority again.

I don't really believe in work-life balance. Anything that is worthy of your passion is going to be a disruptive force in your life. But it doesn't mean that those disruptions aren't welcome. When was the last time you allowed yourself to be selfish?