YOU ARE A BADASS

The body is meant to move and as a society we are becoming softies.  We are choosing comfort zone in all aspects of our lives from career to fitness, from adventure to our homes.

Society makes us believe that bigger is better and that the more we have the more we will be happy.  We start chasing the standard American dream of having the perfect family with a beautiful man or trophy wife, owning expensive cars, and a big house filled with more stuff.   Unfortunately the more we chase this dream the more we become disconnected, unsatisfied and remain in our comfort zone.

It’s time to purge and become once again the author of your own life.  Step outside your comfort zone and remember who you are.   We need shit to grow.

I want to share a story on how my own mother found her courage to step outside of her comfort zone.

For many years, my mother had been contemplating doing a triathlon.   Her excuses would range from her age, to where she lives, and her immune system being weakened post cancer.

The truth she didn’t believe in her own self.   She stopped loving the woman she was the second she found out my dad had killed himself.  She shut down went into survival mode.   She stopped dreaming.  She stopped living.

My mother built walls around her heart in order to protect herself.  These same walls isolated her from her own self.  A few years after my dad died she was diagnosed with grade 4 cancer.  A warrior she is and a dam good one too.  She learned to real fast the worth of her life.  That her life was far from being over.

Cancer gave her a second chance at life.  She learned once again to trust life.  We both raced in our first and second marathons together, the Marine Corps and Baltimore marathon and we had plans in venturing into triathlons. 

For the past 4 years I have been racing in triathlons from International distance to full Ironmans.  My mother was intrigued but fearful.  How will you do it?  How will you train?  What will you eat?  What if you fail?

We all fear fucking things up.  We all fear losing and disappointing others and ourselves.   We fear of what others think of us.  We fear asking for a promotion or asking someone out on a date.  We fear venturing out on our own.  We fear signing up for a race

Our fears are so deep that we create excuses that blind us from the truth.  Your fears control you.  Your fears become your comfort zone. 

My mom faced her own fears a few weeks ago while visiting us over the holidays.

While she was staying with us, I told her that I had signed up for my second Ironman and that it would mean the world to me to have her at the finish line of Lake Placid this July.

Her first question was WHY 140.6 miles?

I explained to her my why. 

For me endurance racing is transformative.  Each race empowers me as I discover the depth of my own strength through self-love and gratitude.   This is my only body.  My only life and I want to live it to the fullest.  I don’t know when I will take my last breath and until that day I will push my body past its comfort zone.   Nothing is for granted.  Nothing is handed to you.  But when you cross that finish line it is the closest experience of flying with your own wings.  If you cross the finish line of an Ironman, believe me you are capable of anything as you have found your new limit.  YOU. 

I told my mom, anything is possible and anybody can do it who has the will power to never give up.   I showed her the Nike commercial of the Iron Nun who at age 84 has completed several Ironmans and keeps opening new age groups.  

She agreed to come back in July to be there for me at the finish line of Lake Placid and as I started my Ironman training while she was here, I asked her to join me in my swims, runs and cycle classes.

One day she looked at me and said “You really think I can do this?”.  I went fuck yeah and you would win your age group. 

At age 64, all my mother needed was a boost of confidence to break down her fears by believing in herself.  She is now back in Nigeria training and preparing herself for her first sprint triathlon this July in Maryland 2 weeks before Lake Placid.

She is scared shitless and I can’t wait to see her cross the finish line and grow her own wings of freedom.  This is the start of a new journey for her. 

A journey of knowing she is a fucking badass and knowing her heart is open and worthy of life and love.

PICUTRE TAKEN BY SYLVIA COLLINETTI