Only Twelve More to Go.....

A few months ago, one of my friends and blog followers surprised me with an invitation to join a Triathalon team he belonged to. I was frankly shocked, because no one had ever asked me to do anything like that before. I was always the last one picked for a team in school, and as an adult, things hadn't really changed much. When we formed a neighborhood kick ball team a few years ago, even my husband was convinced that I would somehow injure myself if I attempted to play, so I was relegated to designated scorekeeper. Yet here I was 46 years old, and getting an invitation to join not just any team, a team of triathletes.

Chris went on to explain that the group was as much social as competitive, and comprised of all different levels of athletes who had joined simply because they enjoyed the sport. He even told me about one person who joined and had never swam before, but learned to swim over time as part of the training. After following my efforts, he thought I might really enjoy training with the group and trying something new. 

I pondered the idea, but was frankly intimidated at the thought. I was definitely working out more, but I was only speed walking...not running, biking only occasionally and certainly hadn't swam laps in years. This was probably a bridge too far, so I pushed the idea away as something to consider at a later date. Not too long after that another friend invited me to join her in the Princess Half Marathon in Florida in 2012. Once again while the invitation was intriguing, the idea was still really intimidating to me as well.  I wasn't even completely sure I could overcome my physical challenges to be able to run, much less run for 13 miles. 

Needless to say, for some reason as I left for the gym today, both of these invitations started rolling around in my head again, but the idea of committing to something with an expectation of performance was still pretty far out of my comfort zone. I still had that fear of failure whispering in the background, and I wasn't sure I should be trying to set goals that seemed so unreachable. But then I thought to myself, "When I started this blog, the goal that I could commit to maintain a healthier lifestyle and stick with it beyond a month seemed fairly unreachable too, and now I was five months into it and still going strong." 

So you may be waiting for my to say that I have decided to take the plunge and accept at least one of these invitations, but I have to be honest, I am still not sure that I am ready to join a team or commit to the half marathon just yet. But today I took my first step towards positioning myself to be able to say "Yes" in the future. I upgraded from walking to running. I ran my entire first mile today instead of simply speed walking. Baby steps... now only twelve more to go!