Remembering the FUN

When I started out in this sport years and years ago, I chose what events I did based on one important thing. Was it fun? Fun for me does not involve pain so that cut out any events over 200 meters, and left me with the sprints and the events where you sprinted and jumped at the end. The funnest event of all though, was always the relay. Your sprinting with teammates. If you do a sport where you have teammates you work with all the time, you might not quite understand the rarity of this and what a nice added dimension it can add to your experience, but believe me it does.

All these years later I still love what I do, but there are times when I forget to have fun. When I go through slumps… or have a string of bad competitions that make me start to worry how I'm going to make ends meet… or start putting ridiculous pressure on myself based on outcomes, it makes it a little difficult to remember to enjoy what I'm doing. I forget to have my fun. I've started this season off doing my best to hold on to that feeling. I mostly make my living in the sandpit now, but once upon a time I was a decent sprinter. More importantly though, sprinting was fun to me. And truth be told, I find it easier to have fun doing things that don't determine whether I have rent money or not sometimes. So this year I've started off my season running two 4x100 relays and a 100 meter race just for fun. It's been great.

The following video is from our 4x1 relay at Florida Relays. My team is in lane 5, team BoogieFast (don't ask). I am the second leg, in all black. It's a little difficult to pick me out which I think is more reason to make sure I wear my socks this season. Blending in is no fun. :) We came in 2nd, but I really think we would have won if our third leg hadn't slowed down half way thru her turn because of a hamstring problem.

Watch more video of 2012 Florida Relays on flotrack.org

puffy paint, sports bras, and breast cancer awareness

A couple of months ago I was approached about contributing to an important cause. MZ Emmers was gathering sports bras signed and decorated by female athletes and then auctioning them off to raise money for Breast Cancer. I thought this was a fantastic idea and so myself and some of the other athletes at the Olympic Training Center got together for a night of puffy paint, glitter, and bedazzlements--all in the name of charity. What resulted was typical athlete competitiveness--we tried to see who could get the MOST puffy paint, glitter, and bedazzlements onto our little sports bras. Well, at least this is what I tried to do since I obviously was not going to win any artistic competition on merit alone. I got a little carried away and someone had to come over and wrestle the bedazzlements and hot glue gun from my hand. What resulted is some of the most creatively decorated sports bras in the auction, and we don't really know if this is a positive or not.

Since the whole point is to actually have people bid on our bras and raise some money for charity, I encourage you to head over to Ebay and take a look at the bras and then BID! It would be awesome if someone out there was nice enough to give me a bid so that all my puffy painting wasn't in vain. If it sounds like I'm begging…I totally am. If you have another favorite athlete that decorated a bra though, feel free to bid on that. I would assume you did so because you didn't like my decorating, not because I'm not your favorite athlete. :)

I am sure most of us have been personally affected by Breast Cancer or know someone who has and I really just think this is a creative and inspiring way to show our support. I encourage you to take part and share the auction with your family and friends!!

BID ON MY SPORTS BRA HERE

BID ON ANY SPORTS BRA HERE