Jallopy and the tri-bike

 I was handed a large chunk of money this week, of which I have yet to deposit, with more on the way. A windfall. Go buy another car, I was told. I sucked in air. My car?  *Gasp*  Okay.... yes, I know it needs ANOTHER grand of work done to it but, it's paid for and it has all these fantastic stickers on the back!! The weather is warming which means the bike rack is going on the back and it fits perfectly. Do you know how long it took to earn those stickers? That's a right of passage! This is all just silly. It threw me into a panic!  I know.....I can buy all those stickers at my next event but, somewhere along the 3 years that I have owned my car, I fell ass deep in love with it. 

It's a pit, it's almost always dirty, there are forever at least 5-6 water bottles rolling around in the back, swim bag, gym bag, bike on the back. Crayons, school books, American girl dolls galore!  It's a chaotic mess, just like me. We have the same persona. We both have some age on us, we both still look hella good. I live in this car! It's my home. How can I give it up? It has, on the most part, been faithful to me and the one time it did fail, it died at a mall parking lot.  A mall parking lot!! A mall I wasn't even aiming for. It left me stranded at the mall for 4 hours. This car is good to me!! Do you see it's benefits?

 Now, I have to enforce the value of the statements I am making. My eyes literally roll back in ecstasy at that new car smell. A smellgasm for sure. Until this car,  I had to have a new one every 2 years.  A complete car snob. And now, I have found comfort in a car. I need to keep her. Hell, I even pose with this car. See above. I am a proud owner of stinky tri bag car. So, it was a no brainer. I'm bagging the money. It's hitting savings for a rainy day when she ( my car) decides she cannot handle me anymore. When I have finally wore her out and we have to part ways.

Instead, I am taking a part of that cash and buying another kind of ride. A tri-bike. My coach told me awhile back that triathletes are a rare breed. That they would drive up to a race with a bike that was twice the value of the car they roll up in. Maybe this makes me an official triathlete. It proves my dedication to the sport. An initiation. My bike is not going to be double the value of my car but, I bet if I resold each one of them separately they would bring in the SAME value. All I know is that I am more excited thinking about shopping for a tri-bike than a new car. 

So, in the next few weeks I will roll up to the sparkly tri-shop and buy myself a pretty sweet ride. I'll name her, my ride, and proudly put her on the back of my car and silently pray we make it all the way home.

And this is how the story goes......

This is going to be a long one. The beginning, background and where it has lead me. It's actually a good story so, hang on. I could certainly write chapters on each portion of my life but, for a blog sake we will just roll with synapses.
I have 3 children. 2 of which have a very rare mitochondrial disorder. The journey that they have lead me through is nothing short of amazing. I have gained fear, knowledge, courage, insanity, peace, love and forgiveness in humanity, just through the birth of my children.
I was told by my first neurologist that my little beautiful blond girl may never walk, talk or function with normalcy. I found him pompous. I didn't agree. My first instinct was to prove him wrong. I was angry at the world. Although most people look at anger as a negative emotion. That emotion served us all well.
I have battled and fought and so have my daughters. Numerous therapies 3-4 times a week, doctors appointments, at one point in our lives we adhered to NACD where I was doing almost 15 different exercises 3 times daily on top of therapies and daily life. She blossomed. It worked to a point where she walked, she talked and she fought just as hard as I did. She went to regular school. We fought there also. We fought until someone ( a teacher) told us she would never read. Again. Anger. It does work. I pulled her out of regular school and we home schooled for 2 years. She can now read.

My organic eat clean food obsession is a result of my girls also. They have an issue with their Krebs cycle and again, another blog post to come. Their mitochondria works they just have Pintos instead of Ferrari's. What can A mom do? She can nourish them....well. And make sure that what they put into their bodies is processed and used as efficiently as possible.

So now, I have healthy, vibrant children who I still fight and have gut wrenching struggles for daily but, in all our battles to help them achieve to their best potential, somewhere along the line I blossomed too.

I would like to think that where my life is heading now is a result of my blind focus and determination of my will and what I wanted to achieve in my personal life. Not even close. It is a result of 3 kids. 2 that I have had to fight for and somehow I came out on top.

My girls went back to public school a few years back. They are social creatures and strive on daily interaction with other kiddos. This left one mom confused and with nowhere to go. I had put everything I had within me to help them walk, even though it wasn't until age 3. Help them talk, even though that didn't come till much later. Help them see,  help them read. We had accomplished much and it was time to let them fly. Time for Kristine to come out of her mommy hole.

I started at a local gym. I got out. I met people. I thrived at it. Eating clean, healthy organic food and lifting weights 3 times a week shreds some serious poundage. It was about 40 plus for me. It was nice.
I started to feel better about who I was a person. I was starting to live my life for me. You always live your life for your kids first but, I think somewhere a lot of mom's lose who they are as a person. A unique person.
 Training lead to cardio. Cardio lead to Endurance and endurance flickered sight of races. First A mini-marathon, then a sprint triathlon, an Olympic and an Half Iron Man. Half Iron man lead to others wanting to know what I was doing and why, oh and " Can you help me out too" YES.... I would love to.  I can honestly say I love what I do. I love being who I am. I love training, I love racing and I absolutely love watching others achieve their goals. No greater joy. It's why I decided to train. Personal training, Triathlon and run coaching.

I thought I was doing all of this for me. I thought I had stepped out of that ginormous mommy hole. That this was all about Kristine and helping others until I was in a seminar a few months back and was asked to share my story. A comment was made. " So, you are doing running, biking and swimming, the things your girls find difficult and cannot" WOW..... a step back. Reality check. I'm still trying to conquer it. Yes.... Yes I am. I will do and do with joy, with them right along with me, the things that they find difficult. A way of coping but, it has lead to  many a great things.

And if I can help my children succeed and I can personally succeed then I have been blessed. A need to share. It's why I chose to coach.