Too much negative noise will drive you crazy....and who wants to be crazy?

So, this is something that has actually bothered me for a long time. As triathletes, marathoners and ultra-marathoners we are apart of an extremely small community. So small that less than 1% of the population in the US actually make up our community. So, why is it that there is bullying, resentment and just flat out disrespect between athletes? Healthy competition is a good thing, even great, but animosity and flat out bad behavior is the thing that can tear apart these sports.

Back in December I traveled to San Francisco to participate in my first ultra-marathon. I was so beyond excited. The morning of the race I rode in the bus with my friend Art and his friend Lucas whom are both crazy runners. I have to be perfectly honest, while I am fully aware that my daughter is 4 years old I still have the most amazingly over bearing insecurity about my weight. Before I was pregnant I worked hard training and stayed between a size 6 to size 8 for the most part and hovered around 140lbs at less than 20% body fat. Now I'm a lot heavier than that and over between a size 12 and a larger size 10 on a good day. It's hard for me to see people I haven't seen in years, but I went and picked up coffee and met up with the guys at the bus. It was great to see Art after so many years. It took me forever to finish and I did what my head is just programed to do: walk straight to the shuttle, get on shuttle, go back to car, go home. I do it at every race and rarely go to a race with anyone else. On the shuttle I met the nicest man who ran. We talked about our families, he has 6 children, and running, his wife was running her 1st marathon and hoping to qualify for Boston.

Fast forward to mid-March, and after the Catalina marathon I got my backpack and made a beeline for the boats, changed my ticket to the next boat to the mainland and got inline to board. Low and behold, the person standing in front of me is the same man from the shuttle (his wife qualified for Boston with 16 seconds to spare) as well as another runner from Virginia that I had met at the Malibu Marathon the previous November. The next week I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico for the inaugural San Juan 70.3 half Ironman. At the expo I ran into people I've met and seen at many races, and it dawned on me: We are a small community of less than 1% which means it doesn't matter if you're in Marin County, a small island off the coast of California, or a large island in the Caribbean, or training in your local community.....we are a community nonetheless and we are all in this together.

You don't have to get along, you don't have to love each other, hell there are going to be times when you are frustrated with your training or just life in general and you can't stand anyone, but at the end of the day the people that will always be there to see you to the finish is a community of athletes that do make up less than 1% of the population. So we are all bound to have people we will see in training and racing we don't particularly like, and that's okay. Shit happens. The question is will you allow the noise to negatively effect you, or will you block out that noise and be in a place of yes? I know, totally sounds very Pollyanna of me, but seriously, tell me where in your life you actually have the mentally capacity and time in your life carved out for negative noise? I'm willing to bet you $20 you don't.

It's racing season, but for me it's mostly training season for Vineman Full on July 30th. That insecurity of the extra 30-35lbs is going to go away along with the weight. It's a burden too heavy to carry anymore. Any stress and negativity is no longer permitted in my life. It's too noisy, and I rather enjoy a peaceful existence, and really who doesn't enjoy happiness and a peaceful existence?