If you read my post last night, you understand that title.
After an appropriate nudge from the person I trust and respect most in this world, I took down my last post. It didn't sit well with me either to be honest.So, down it came.
All I am going to say is: Please don't judge others. I think we all can learn from that. Don't assume you know how people handle the personal details of their lives. We all make assumptions, of course. It's human nature. But I will work even harder from this point on to refrain from making judgements. Because, nobody really knows.
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Moving on! I have some fun things to share.
Yesterday I went to my boy's Elementary school to share my Ironman experiences. I was asked by their teachers to share with their classes what I had done in Hawaii and what I did to earn my spot on the starting line. Our district's mission is to teach our kids to Aspire Higher. The focus lately has been on goal setting and reaching beyond to a place you didn't know was possible.
I had to step out of my comfort zone. It's not easy for me to speak in front of groups. To make it more difficult, I had to talk about myself. To kids! Not just any kids, my kids and their peers. I wanted to make them proud. I thought and thought about how to make my story interesting to children. They are only in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades. I worried about making my Ironman stories interesting to such young little people.
But, most of all, I wanted to make my own kids proud of their Mom. Of course, they were in Lake Placid and they were in Kona. They have been with me every step of the way. They know most of the ins and outs of this sport. But this time, I was standing in front of their peers. I didn't want to mess up. I wanted to be
cool.
I made a little outline and gathered some gear. I brought my fancy medal from Kona, my 1st place trophy from Lake Placid, some gels, an aero helmet, a race wheel, a torque swim suit, and a few pictures. I explained how far 112 miles was.... a drive from our town to ~Boston. I talked about setting goals and no matter how hard things got, continuing. I explained that my Ironman took lots and lots and lots of work to even cross the finish line. It didn't happen automatically because I signed up. I talked about the fact that I often wake up at 4:30 a.m. to swim, that some of my bike rides last the whole school day and that some days felt good and some days felt very bad. I changed some words depending on who's class I was speaking to. I answered questions about changing tires, about where we went to the bathroom ( true! ) and if I really ran the whole way. I had some kids raise their hands and tell me about races they had done. One boy ran a kid's race in Crocs after his Mother's triathlon and he was Very very proud. I loved that.
I think the day went well. When I picked the boys up after school they all quickly said, " I liked your talk Mommy!"and "it was really good. " And other nice things like that. I was relieved and very happy to make them smile. Triathlon is such a part of their world that I think they had fun sitting back and being the ones in their classroom to know all about something.
But the most fun came today!!!! Nicholas is in 2nd grade. He's 7. His Whole class wrote me beautiful and sweet notes! I will quote a few.... I only wish I could paste their adorable and in some cases impressively neat handwriting!!! .
Dear Mrs. Bancroft, ( they all started this way.... )
"You taught me that reaching your aspiration is hard. I learned that you must work hard to reach your goal. Now I can do the same. I'll work hard to reach my aspiration. "
"Thank you for teaching us that in order to reach our goal we need to work hard. Thank you for telling us about what you had to eat and drink to keep going. It was really great that you got 2nd place out of all those people. "
"That was very nice of you to show us what you do. We were glad for you to come to our classroom. I like you. You are pretty. "
"Thank you for teaching me that if you work hard in football you can win the game. That is my goal. "
"thank you for coming in and teaching us how hard you have to work. It sounds really fun. My aspiration is to do a round off. You must of trained really really hard. when I was in track when my legs and feet hurt I set a goal not to stop because I knew that I had to do the race. "
"You taught us about exercising. You also taught us about swimming in a line. "
"You taught me that you have to eat and drink or you will be dehydrated. "
"You made me know how to get to my goal. Now that you talked about how you do your exercise because I'm going to be a football player so thank you for teaching us about exercise you do. Have a good night for you and Nick. "
my favorite:
"Dear Mommy,
Thank you for coming in the classroom. It was fun. Thank you for bringing me to Hawaii. 2 mile swim 112 mile bike and run 26 miles YOU ARE AN IRONMAN! love nick"
These made my day. Now I feel sure that yesterday was a good thing to do.
