a letter

have you seen these? the letter to the 13 year old me or 16 year old me, etc? they are on blogs everywhere.

if i would write one to myself for anytime period between 13 and 24 it would go something like this:

dear younger me,

straighten up.

sincerely,

older me (who still gets it wrong a lot of times)


so here are some specific things i would write to young women now.

all women, all ages, invest in your friendships. your whole life. you will never be sorry you made time for friends and worked to keep them close and made new friendships at every period of your life.

13 year old girls...18 year old boys are not interested in you

16 year old girls...you are more beautiful then you know

18 year old girls...hold onto every moment, don't try to leave childhood too fast

21-28 year old women...
- have fun. these should feel like the best years of your life. (but please know they really aren't)
- read more, travel more, make friends, grow
- stop giving it away, save it for someone who loves you
- pictures of yourself in bikinis/boobs out of your shirt make you look cheap. guys will think you are.
- you should know better!!! and i'm serious, someday you will wish you hadn't. i know they say you only regret the things you don't do, but don't believe that. you will regret somethings that you do. your whole life. have fun, but MAKE GOOD DECISIONS.
- you are worth more
- you are worth more than the man who puts sports first
- you are worth more than dating a married man
- you are worth more than a booty call
- two dates does not mean he is planning forever with you
- don't pick up men on international vacations...seriously, always a bad idea.

35 year old women...life is just starting to get good, you are not old.
- get some good better wrinkle cream

40 year old women...find a hobby you love because you are about to have some serious time to do things you want to do.
- best years of your life...


i can't say anything beyond this, because i'm not there yet.

conversations with whitney

whitney: "kelsey and i are going to wear tutu's for the southeast game. it's pinkout night can you make me one?"

cue the internal silent celebration, i've been wanting to make her a tutu for years

me: "sure"

a trip to hancock fabric the next day, $17.00 and two hours, voila

whitney: "kelsey and i really wanted to match and she has a pink tutu, but really likes mine better. can you make one for her too?"


oh, be still my heart. this is like the year i got to make two little bo peep costumes for halloween for her and her second grade friend. (this should really be in the "does that make me crazy file, i'm so jazzed about another trip to hancock's and making another tutu and adding more ribbon bows at whitney's request.)

lessons from the trail 15 - the finish

i'm proud of these. my finisher's medals. i have even run a few that don't give medals. (it doesn't mean i didn't finish).

sometimes you get injured or too sick to finish. it does happen. i'm not knocking people who don't finish a race. i have heard that it's habit forming. quitting when it gets hard. i've also heard it hurts. that a dnf (did not finish) haunts you. there is a saying in the running world, dead last is better than dnf. i've had one dead last (or 11th place). and i prefer dead last to dnf. always.

i realized this week you can buy a race bib and a race tee shirt. you can register get the tee shirt, the race packet and all the swag without a lick of training or stepping to the starting line. and for this race, it was a really cool tech shirt.

but you can't buy the medal. you don't get the medal till you cross the finish line.

i wear my tee shirts, but i didn't earn them. and earned this medal.

my medals are in a drawer in my vanity. i don't wear them, no one sees them. yet they mean more to me than the tee shirts. i know how hard i worked, the training miles, the painful steps, the mental conversations in my head to earn these. i look at these medals and i remember the race and the stories that go with it.

finishing. finishing strong. that's always my goal

the growth physically, mentally and spiritually i've gotten from doing the hard things, from finishing is noticeable.

this was better than the medal at the finish line

2 timothy 4:7 i have fought the good fight, i have finished the race, i have kept the faith.


i like being a finisher.

does that make me crazy?

ultra marathon training starts next week. i have a week between the marathon and this training that is unscripted.

i am so excited to start training next week!

i have 5 days of running, with hill and bleacher work

3 days of weights, an hour per day

2 days of cross fit, two different workouts, timed for intensity

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!