So, what about the bad days?

Team in Training is without a doubt, the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. I’m a part of this amazing and supportive family. We sweat together, we wake up before the sun together, we have the same appreciation for spandex and Body Glide, and we can’t run by each other without congratulations and a cascade of “GO TEAM!” exclamations.

But we aren’t superhuman. Rockstars, yes. I’ll tell you right now that every member of TEAM is a rockstar and an amazing human being. But superhuman? Not in the slightest. We may laugh and love with each other, but we cry with each other too. Nothing about what we do is easy, but we’re constantly reminded of and inspired by those that suffer from blood cancers and would give anything to be able to wake up and run along the beach, plantar fasciitis, shinsplints, cramps, chafing and all. Glamorous, isn’t it? Totally.

But what about the bad days? When your body doesn’t cooperate? When you’re morale is dwindling and you don’t know how you’ll make your fundraising minimum? We have those days. Those sleepless nights. Saturday was one of those days. I had been sidelined with a horrendous shin splint for a month or so, and while I got quite good at Sun Salutes, this was NOT how my training was supposed to go. I spent four months sidelined, and was finally trying to claw my way back to my old self. So when I showed up at gorgey Moonlight Beach in Encinitas on Saturday, I was just hoping that with compression sleeves over kinesiology tape, I’d be able to run my heart out. But no such luck. After a mile and a half, I new there was no way I’d be able to continue: the shin pain was just too bad. I turned around and walked back, about as demoralized as it gets. There’s a sob story for you. See? We have bad days.

I sulked for quite a while, actually, and may still be sulking, but at the end of the day, no matter how much it wore us down, what we’re doing is bigger than our shins. We’re in this for those who consider shin splints a blessing in comparison to what they go through. For those who fight for their lives every single second and still have the ability to love. We do this for them.

So we do have bad days. They hurt, we cry, but each and every tear and ache is a blessing because we are fortunate to be healthy. We just have to see it through.

Chocolate Shop in the Pearl District of Portland. This is how I'm drowning my sorrows. That, and the vinyasa podcast I need to do.