Tuesday, May 27, 2025 – Pick your wins

Hey Everyone!

Huge congrats to Jason who ran the Ottawa marathon and got a BQ! And to Laura, Erin and myself who ran the TO Women’s 5K and came 2^nd,1^st, and 1^st in our age groups respectively. Yay all of us.

Well, sort of yay me. If it was not then it was close to a PW. (Personal Worst for those of you who are blithely unfamiliar). I knew it wasn’t going to be my best, and there was a lot of execution error, but still. As I was contemplating how to feel about this, my wise friend Erin said to me: “You get to pick your wins you know.” That struck a chord. If no one’s judging me but me, (and I know for the most part they aren’t), then why don’t I just pick my own parameters. I was healthy and running. I was having a very fun morning with friends. I was still able to compete and enjoy pushing myself. Ok, those are the wins I’ll pick.

This is a very empowering concept. In the race that we ran there were 5 women over 80, the oldest of whom was 87. I initially thought, wow – lucky them, they get to just celebrate running at that age, with no pressure. But now I think that was presumptuous of me. At least two 80-year olds did not make the age group podium! Maybe they cared about that. Maybe they did get nervous and were competitive. Or maybe they didn’t, and they were just happy to be there. The point is, they are the ones who get to decide their wins. No one else can know or presume to know.

I think deciding our wins is a concept we have to grow into. When we’re younger, our wins are very much decided by adults, the authorities, the rule makers. We’re told whether we won or lost, succeeded or failed. But as we grow and evolve, we come to realize it’s not so simple. A failure at one time is a success under different circumstances. And other people don’t get to define what constitutes either one. If putting yourself on the line is hard for you, then getting to a start line is a win. If confronting the pain and doubt at 2/3rds through the race is scary for you (that’s where it seems to hit regardless of the distance), then putting yourself in that place and working through it is a win! If you’re moving from lifetime personal bests to personal bests of the decade, then those new times are a win! You get to pick. That is empowerment. Thank-you Erin!

On to tomorrow’s workout – back to the Spit! Still meeting at Lakeshore and Leslie at 6:05 for drills, 6:15 head down.

5 min tempo, 3 min easy, 5 x 2 min Hard, 1 min Easy, 3 min easy, 8 x 1 min Fast, 1 min Easy. The whole thing will take about 40 minutes – just letting ppl know bc I know these sometimes get a little tight for time for ppl who need to blow-dry and get to offices. But if we start on time that has us finishing close to 7. There’s a win if you want that one!

That is all – see you in the a.m.!

xo

Seanna