Not a weigh in day… but something healthy train related 🙂

As you may or may not know… I’ve had a personal trainer for about the last year and a half.  Her name is Kristen. Through the training process, she’s become one of my greatest friends.

Kristen is genuinely who I owe about 90% of my success on the healthy train to. She’s been an incredible motivator and has NO shame in uhm…. telling me how it’s gonna be. AKA… when it’s training time… she goes 0 to betty in about 10 seconds 😉

Well… early this year… I had to quit the personal training (the gym’s program changed…) and when I realized that our time together was ending… I was REALLY upset. I cried. Yeah, OVER THE TOP! The interesting thing was that I was not really upset about losing the motivator, though I was going to miss it… I was more upset about not seeing Kristen twice a week… you know… my friend!

She’s been one of the very few constants in my life in recent years.  When I’d be doing push ups… we’d talk… a lot.  My dramas, her dramas, weddings, aspirations, boys, sex, life stories, hilarious memories, etc. There really is not a topic too taboo for us. I mean… nada. She’s my Indianapolis Corrie (AKA my Grigh) Yeah, that’s a big deal. HUGE DEAL!  Now, instead of training me… I go and spin with her once or twice a week. So, LUCKILY… I still get my Kristen time in. WHEW! RELIEF!!!!

At the beginning of the year she started training for a half Ironman. You’re probably wondering… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! Lucky for you, I’m a plethora of knowledge who’s about to tell you 😉 It’s a triathlon. BUT NOT JUST ANY TRIATHLON… a RIDICULOUS triathlon. RIDIC! Swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles then it ENDS with 13.1 mile RUN! ARE YOU FLIPPING KIDDING ME?! RIDIC!!!!!!

Kristen and I are very alike in that our expectations of ourselves is very high. We both put too much pressure on ourselves. While our goals are very different, we relate to each other very well.  Watching her train for this triathlon has been intense. She’s trained hard. VERY hard. Sacrificed more than she ever realized to accomplish this goal… learned so much about her strengths, limits, priorities, relationships and needs.

Here’s an excerpt from her blog: “The journey has pushed me beyond where I thought I could go, and taught me more about myself, than any other experience.”

 

About a month ago Kristen decided last minute to run the local Carmel Triathlon. It’s literally 1/5th the distance of the one that’s happening tomorrow. Small fries I tell ya.  😉 As we were sitting on the spin bikes, she casually mentioned it. WELLLLLL… I had the weekend off… and damnit… I was going to BE there! My turn to show support.  I surprised her 🙂 First I watched the swim… but couldn’t find her. So, I headed out to the bike trail. I stood there with my 70-200 waited, watched and cheered for random people. 😀 Well, she turned the corner and I got SOOOO excited that I almost forgot to shoot until the VERY last minute. Here  was my only photo 🙂 OOOPS! This was her expression when she saw me. 🙂 My red hair is kinda hard to miss.  The photo on the right is her at the finish line. That guy was randomly in front of her… and for no reason she ran her little booty off to beat him… just for fun. When she saw this photo she said, “I WON! I BEAT HIM”  I sat there and watched over 100 people complete this triathlon. NOT ONE of them was smiling like she was. 😀

HEEEEERE WE ARE!!!!!

 

Well, tomorrow is said triathlon.  She’s in North Carolina RIGHT now with her family preparing.  So, before she did this thing…  I wanted to put this little entry up to tell her how much she means to me… how much I appreciate her friendship and love the person she is.

Kristen, you’ve been so much more than just a trainer to me. I know I couldn’t have accomplished so much growth… both physically and mentally… without you. Thank you for sharing yourself with me and giving me a place to freely share myself with you. I’m BEYOND proud of you. You inspire me to be a better person. Really. Thank you.

So… ROCK THE SHIZ OUT OF THIS IRONMAN!!!! I’d SO be there if I weren’t shooting a wedding… withOUT a doubt!!!!

Love you friend.

~betty

“Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters.” -Dave Matthews