Monday, January 10, 2011

What is a Champion?

An idea is always easy.
Getting a start plan get's your feet moving.
Getting things moving is exciting.
As you get going the mess begins....

This is so much harder then I thought. I thought sure I am a skater, how hard could it be just to skate fast and not do ANY jumps or spins. All I have to do is stroke and crossover in one direction.

WRONG!! This sport is so much more technical, so precise, so much more challenging than I ever thought. Sure I could come in and muscle and plow my way in. And that would only let me get so far, because a wall will be hit. But the hard part is learning the movement of the rhythm with the precision of the power. This sport is a well tuned and crafted creation. The feeling your able to experience is so dynamic it's really not possible to place in words. All I can say is that it challenges everything we are created to be, it makes us so aware of the greatness our bodies were made to be able to achieve. And allows us the time to stay suspended in that moment of awe for brief minutes.

With all that said I am still at the crawling stage of this journey. It is time for me to learn how to walk I have felt that need to get up and run and I am ready for falls along the way now. And falls I will take, and today I say I am ready to take them.

Someone said to me this weekend, If only I met you 20 years ago you could really go someplace in this sport. And I said don't look at me like twenty years to old, look at me like I am in that place right now. Because when I place my face close to that ice I don't feel my age at all! I am 20 in that moment and my body doesn't feel my age or understand it, it just has this desire to learn how to go faster.

And who knows maybe Geritol and Depends Undergarments will see me as a source of advertisement for the "more interesting in age" generation!

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE IF YOU BELIEVE!

I haven't written in this journal for a time because I have been battling with this incredible sense of failure over coming out of the closet with this dream I have. I have been feeling like a crazy lady for even thinking this and I have gone into, it really doesn't matter mode. I have been battling the "inner competitor" in me for the last few months.Not knowing if I could or wanted to feel that feeling again. I took a fall rollerblading and it put some fear in me about getting hurt physically, and I pulled back. I have been afraid to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to the point of losing control of my steps and getting injured or not having that feeling of "protection" surrounding me.

Well this weekend changed everything for me. I have learned a lot about myself and about others.I watched the competitive drive of people my age and seen them overcome so many challenges and road blocks of there own. Some have achieved the best they are going to be. But all are daring to become it! That statement of to bad not 20 years ago was like a wake up call and my entire body went WHY NOT NOW!!! WAKE UP!!! GET MOVING!!! HARDER!!!

So my question was, what is a champion?

Well I feel a "Champion" is one that I will be when I finish this journey that I am on. A "Champion" is made from the everyday moment to moment living, training, the ups the downs and the "story" you have when you have completed the journey you began!

2 comments:

  1. Jacki, this is such a beautiful post; written with a grip on reality, yet with a touch of destiny in it. Use today, Jacki, for what it is, work through it; but sculpt tomorrow.

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  2. This is a wonderful post, full of honesty and realizations.

    You are a champion! I am so happy to have met you this past weekend. Like I said in my blog post, "I have found this deep respect for those who speedskate; for those who are willing and daring to try something that requires technical perfection, stick their butts out, deal with aching backs, sore thighs, and most of all wear a spandex skin suit." Congrats on 5 well skated races- looking forward to Calgary- I hope to be the one on the back straightaway.

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