Saturday, August 11, 2012

Potential

With my training becoming more of a consistent thing, there seems to be more pieces slowly coming together. The pieces may not fit, but at least the opportunity to examine them and decide for myself is there. A lot of it  has stemmed from starting running with Laura. Unbeknownst to her, she has opened a whole lot of doors for me and I am truly grateful to her. When I thanked her she replied,
"you still have to run on your own two legs."
I laughed, but I really don't think she understands the full weight of what she's done for me. Because of her, I may have found a small pool of runners willing to run with me from time to time.
When Mr. K and I moved to our new flat, we not only moved closer to Laura but also to a different gym. She encouraged us to join this gym and after some discussion, we decided to do it. So far, I have really enjoyed my time at this particular gym and it's been because of this that I've met more runners.
The UK wide shop called the Sweat Shop organises community running programs and there just happens to be one associated with the gym we've joined. Laura spoke to the manager and he said it would be no problem for me to come along to the runs. They run Sunday, and Tuesdays and after attending my first run on Tuesday, I've found two other volunteers who are interested in guiding for me. There have been others who have put up their hands as well, which is very encouraging.
Laura usually only runs with the group on Tuesdays so having someone, or a few someones, there on Sundays would be great. I am supposed to run with one of the new volunteers tomorrow to see how she likes it and if we are a good match.
Laura and I are going to continue running on Tuesdays with her guiding me but as a part of the running group. We will also  do my long runs on Wednesday evenings just on the trails by my flat; just the two of us. She and I chatted this past Wednesday about a workout schedule and this week will be the first week I'm implementing it. I really hope with my new plan and potential guide runners, I can really get things moving even more than they already are. Exciting times.
On top of  all of this very exciting stuff, I've finally heard back from Triathlon Canada. I contacted them almost two years ago with no results. Para triathlon had not really taken a hold in Canada only two years ago, but with London 2012 approaching for Paralympians and triathlon being added to the 2016 line up, Triathlon Canada is starting to develop a Para-triathlon team. Originally, I had been in touch with the UK team, but no one was very interested in helping me go anywhere with triathlon. I suspect that it may be because I'm not from the UK and they'd be training me to compete against them. I hadn't entirely decided who'd I compete for, but if Triathlon Canada wants to take me on and support me, then I would compete for them.
The person I am supposed to talk to about my situation is currently on vacation, but hopefully I'll hear from him soon. The guy who responded to my enquiry, said that I was the type of athlete they were looking for and so, (hopefully again), something will come of all of this.
I also spoke to an acquaintance about potentially running the London marathon together. She ran it last year, but injured herself at mile ten. She finished the race, but she's hoping to better her time since she finished in over six hours. I've applied to raise funds for the Guide Dog organisation in the UK, whereas, she's applied for a general ballot with no fundraising pressures. We both kind of thought that if one of us gets a ballot, we may be able to work something out where we run together.
Again, more "hoping" and "potential," but I like this kind of "hoping" and "potential." A lot of good things could come of all of these things.

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