Man life can through you curve balls time and time again and I think the trick to it is to keep getting up and trucking on! As a very wise man always told "smile and the world smiles with you Becca Barlow"
After a whirlwind of all sorts over the past few months I think I am ready to try and settle!
The Ironman has been nursing a severely sprained ankle for 8 weeks ( take note: if you hear a "popping" sound from your ankle it generally is not a good thing) although he is a terrible patient - I think most husbands/ironmen are! he has been very patient and sensible , nursing the injury hopefully back to almost 100%. His team of trainers have been very patient with him and Shaneo even went out in sympathy and broke his elbow! (the 2 cripples have been over training in the disciplines they are able in...) We have met with Walter at Go2Max and the difference it makes to Walts frame of mind having Walter back on board is worth its weight in gold, he is naturally quite obsessive when he puts his mind to something but is also quite lax so needs someone to answer to, and the respect he has for Walter makes him the perfect person for the job, I think it is very important to find a good coach that works for you, once you do it can make the difference between just being a finisher at Ironman or going out and demolishing it! Walt and Walter have found that relationship and over the past 3 years they have knocked a good few hours off Walts Ironman time and are hopeful of more impressive things next year!Bring it on , I say!
As I have tried to be sympathetic to what is happening for Walt and how frustrating it must have been I have also been nursing my own injuries, The stress from work and family illness proving to great and forcing me (truly it did force me?) to quit my job and take some time out for me...this in itself is very unusual as I generally don't do things for me....Does any Ironman Wife? however it couldn't have been more timely as it coincided with my Nana (and one of my best friends) first real illness in 85 years. My two kids and I spent all day Tuesday with her at home then she got taken to hospital that night for a blood transfusion - 2 weeks and 1 day later she passed pretty much in her sleep! I spent every moment I could with her, We all got to talk to her about our lives and her life and about her death, she got to tell all of us how proud she was of us and what we had achieved and she insisted that as we followed our dreams she would be there...IMNZ she will be waiting for Walt at the finish line, Keegz NZ Junior swimming champs, she will be on the blocks waiting. She was a true champion of life and we are all so blessed to have had her for as long as we did, I miss her every day and without her I feel as though I want to focus all this time I spend missing her on something worthwhile that would make her proud... So I am going to Swim for Nana! The plan was to raise money for NZ Blood, because over those 2 weeks and 1 day she must have almost drained NZ bloods supply, she received blood transfusions, platelette transfusions, I sat and learnt all about red blood cells, platelette levels, hypo plastic anemia, it was all quite surreal but as I watched and listened I knew that alot of people had donated to give Nana those last 2 weeks of life in good health so I really wanted to thank them, Turns out they don't need monetary donations...Money cant by blood Huh? however they do need donors- so please if you can donate do it, I guess we never know who we are saving or impacting but whoever gave us that blood for Nana I will be grateful to forever and I have signed myself up to start donating, therefore the second option was Save the Children, Nana has worked in their store volunteering for nearly 20 years, so with that in mind I am going to try and swim 5 of the 6 NZ State Ocean Swims, I have started swimming again (thats rather hilarious in itself!) I have a coach (who made me do a 1km time trail yesterday!)and I am trying to get a couple of awesome companies on board to help me..more about that as they say yes obviously!
So as I try and turn this anger and grief into something positive, as Walt tries to focus on the positive of having to sit 8 weeks out of running and as the world just keeps turning and throwing curve balls at us I think the advice is very appropriate , what else can you do but:
Smile!
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