How Mommyhood Makes Me a Better Triathlete

Kids may push all your buttons sometimes, but they can also make you be a better person too.  I think that I am also a better triathlete because of them.  Sure I may not have as much time to train as I’d like, or fit everything in very well, but here are some ways that they DO make me better…

• I know what real pain feels like, what suffering looks like, and how you go through it all for the end result.
• You know it’s going to hurt, but you choose to go through it anyway.  Again, the end result is worth it.
• I know how to push through and keep going even when I’m ridiculously tired, because kids still need you even when they’ve left you without sleep.  Didn’t sleep well the night (or week or month) before a race?  Not ideal, but you’ve learned to manage.
• You learn to get up and get going right away in the morning.
• You learn not to procrastinate – that nap is only going to last so long and if you don’t get out there right NOW to take advantage of it, you’ll lose your opportunity.
• You have something to prove, not just to yourself, or even to others about yourself, but rather something to prove to others about themselves, that they can do it too.
• You appreciate every opportunity to train and compete way more.
• Motivation to make your spouse and kids proud, to be a role model to them to show them what hard work and a healthy lifestyle looks like.
• Patience.  Need I say more?
• Big picture.  Discipline.  In triathlon, big picture can mean pushing through those tough training days (or even allowing ourselves to back off for recovery days) and trusting that is what will make us better.    Big picture can also mean that it’s okay to miss a training session here and there as long as we’ve been consistent in putting in the work otherwise.  Life happens.  Kids interrupt the best-laid plans.  But it’s going to be okay.

Don’t think you can’t do something because you are a mom.  There’s a good chance you may actually be able to do it better!