What I Wish I Had Known 10 Years Ago

Recently, I have come across a lot of “Things I Wish I Had Known” type posts. I decided to write one for myself. In less than two weeks I will be sitting for the Texas Bar Exam and in one month I will begin my LLM at Florida. It is important, for me, to keep moving forward, but it also equally important to remember where I started from or my own struggles and demons.

10 years ago I would have been 18, just graduated from high school, and about to start college at the University of Arizona (Bear Down!). Everything I have done in my life has led me to right here, which is where I believe I am supposed to be. But with that said, I wish I had known the following.  

1. LOVE AND FEELINGS. It is a really good thing to love and be loved. When I was 18 ,I was still with my high school boyfriend. He was my first love, my first everything. I loved him so much it hurt. When we did finally break up, (it’s all fun to think your relationship will stand the test of long-distance – until it doesn’t) I actively chose not to deal with the pain. Instead, anything that reminded me of him or was him, I cut out completely because the pain hurt too much and I could not handle the pain. I compartmentalized the relationship when we broke up and I put it in a box in my mind, duct taped it shut, and actively and purposefully chose not to deal with it. I should not have done that. I wish I had known 10 years ago to just deal with the pain. Embrace the pain. Cry. Be upset. Be sad. Feel something. Don’t be numb or go numb. We had a great, pure, true, real love and it was okay to be heartbroken that the relationship was over. There was no need to fall into the trap or play the mind game of “well if I moved to SB or him to Arizona then we’d be together.” Or any other sort of variation of “well if I had just done X, then we would have been together.” The truth: I don’t know if we would have been. And that is okay.

I can only speak for me, but I know I needed to grow up. I needed to appreciate what I had with him and, for me, that meant growing up. The experience taught me that a relationship should be between two people and no one else. Because I had the experience of someone being so nice and kind to me and who really truly loved me, I knew that I wanted to be with a man would love me like that.

Without that relationship ending I would have never met my husband. And for that I am incredibly thankful.

 2. COMPLIMENTS. 18 year-old Courtney could not accept a compliment. 28-year-old Courtney still sucks at it. People will give you compliments – don’t be weird about it. Say “thank you” and maybe something nice back and that’s it. Don’t make weird faces or downplay it.  

3. FRIENDS. Throughout the last 10 years there has been one constant – my friends. I could write a whole post on them, but I won’t. I love them. Tara, thank you for taking Rafiki and loving him, what you did for him and me went well above the call of friendship. But we have always had that kind of friendship. KJ, I love you. Becky, I hope to be #BeckyFast one day.

4. RELATIONSHIPS. Relationships will come and go. A romantic relationship doesn’t have to be something where I have this great epiphany and I grow and change. A romantic relationship can be just that – a romantic relationship. Not all romantic relationships are supposed to teach me something deep and prolific. And they don’t have to. Maybe all I am supposed to get out of it was romantic relationship things and that it didn’t work out.  

5. MY BODY AND FOOD. I jokingly say (jokingly because I don’t know how to handle emotions or feelings) that my longest and most successful relationship has been with my eating disorder (Ed). I know, an eating disorder is nothing to joke about, it is very serious. But for me, it is how I cope with having one. At some point I will need to decide to be okay with food, my own body, and being in my own skin. I am not sure when that will be but I know I need to be the one to make it happen. No one can do it for me. Whatever size I am or am not or what the scale says should not dictate my level of happiness. A size two does not automatically mean pure bliss. A size ten does not mean heartache and failure. Fat is not emotion or a feeling. While I know these things to be true, I just can’t bring myself to believe them – about myself.  

6. ACADEMICS AND FAILURE. I never believed in myself in really anything, honestly. That changed when I went to law school. In undergrad, I just did the work to get by and not applying 100% of myself to see what I could reach. (Sorry Mom.) I was afraid of what would happen if I tried really hard at something and failed. And to be honest, I am terrified of giving my all to everything and succeeding. Ten years ago, I wish I had trusted myself to give school everything I had. Failure wasn’t going to happen but I didn’t know that or believe myself. In law school, I worked my ass off and earned a 4.0 during probably my roughest semester. Great things have happened to me because of my achievements. Ten years ago I did not think that I would be where I am today. My promise to myself (it kind of feels like 18-year-old Courtney is making this promise) is to give, hopefully, my last program everything I have.

7. EXERCISE AND FAILURE. I think the common theme for me is: Fear. I have accomplished a lot, NYC Marathon, a lot of half-marathons, other distances, and some sprint tris. However, I am basically paralyzed by fear of not reaching my goals to a point where I wish I didn’t have goals. In college, I let my college boyfriend convince me that I would never have what it takes to run a marathon…fucker. But I know I can do anything I actually believe I can do. Now I just need to believe it. One of my goals before I turn 30 is to run an ultramarathon, a 50K. I will not let fear stand in my way.  

8. FAMILY. Life is really short and life is what we make of it. Family matters. Ten years ago, I brushed family off in a lot of ways and I should not have done that.  

9. HAPPINESS/DEPRESSION. I wish I had known ten years ago to just accept myself for the good and faults I have. I struggle with depression and some days are better than others but as long as I am doing what I should be doing I am okay. I can have bad days. Bad days do not need to define me. One bad day does not mean the next that the next day, automatically, will be bad too.  

10. LET IT GO. Yes, like the Frozen song. I am incredibly guilty of just not letting anything go and it builds up. It builds up to a point where it actually physically hurts me. 18 year-old Courtney – Let Shit Go. 28 year-old Courtney – Let Shit Go.

Studying for the Bar Exam

I am currently studying for the bar exam. Sigh.

This is how I feel. 

Challenge Accepted

Becky, one of my very best friends in the world, whom I have know since I was Little Courtney, is doing an eating challenge this month. 

Ok - back story on Becky. Becky is a complete BAMF. She is exactly the type of woman you want your daughter to grow up and become. She's beautiful, really smart, hilarious, unbelievably caring, an amazing runner... I talked her into running Ragnar Del Sol with our team in February. She was a complete BAMF! She ran the 13.5 mile leg for a total of like 25 miles. And she didn't complain once. Me, on the other hand, I was a complete little baby.

She is doing an eating challenge this month. Check it out here. I struggle so much with my body image and my weight. I have been wondering how personal I want my blog to be, and I figured I can't be kind of truthful, I need to just be me - which is telling the truth all the time. My husband and I got married in August and I lost about 30 pounds for the wedding.  Well since then, I have slowly but surely gained it back.  I wanted to lose more for the wedding but reached a plateau and accepted it. Losing weight is a lot about how I will look but it also is really important because extra weight means slower running.  And I am slow enough. Joining Becky this month seems like such a solid idea!


But to make a long story short - I am 100% in with Becky on this challenge. Challenge Accepted!

2013 ING NYC Marathon & Me

            I ran the New York City Marathon. Originally I was going to write about all the things you would imagine a typically “Race Report” to say, maybe talk about how my armband chafed me and I had to give it to my husband and BFF Tara at mile 10 (this did happen) but I am not going to do that with this post. Instead – here goes.

            I met my true self on that course. I am going to try really hard to keep myself in check and keep my perspective honest. Before the race I was, honestly, scared shitless and BFF Tara said the best thing to me, our conversation went to the effect of something like this. In all truthiness, I was probably a lot more dramatic and possibly whinny.

Me: I am terrified about this race. Don’t tell Husband Dan that I am saying this but he is super right, I needed to train more for this. What am I thinking?

BFF Tara: You can do this. You have trained and you can do this. Not that many people will run a marathon and you are not only going to run a marathon but you’re running the New York City Marathon, which is a big deal.

Me: But so many people run marathons and they are so much faster than me. I am so slow.

BFF Tara: Courtney, you said this to me, a mile is a mile doesn’t matter how fast it is. And it might seem like a lot of people run marathons but that is only because the people that do run marathons are all here.

To me, it made sense. I kept thinking about that before the race. It helped me to keep myself in check, meaning that I didn’t want to take one step of that race for granted. I am so incredibly lucky that my first marathon was the 2013 ING New York City Marathon. I am also so grateful to the USO (for a lot of reasons) but for letting me represent Team USO and fundraising for my spot.

            I get shin splints and they hurt like a mother bitch. But I knew that going in and it is something I have to deal with when I run. I also used to blister every single time I ran but now I have that under control. So of course, the first two miles on the Verzano Bridge killed my shins. But it is so weird because they hurt then two miles in to any run the pain is magically gone. The marathon was no exception to this.

            I met up with Husband Dan and crew at like Mile 10. I ditched the armband (because of the chaffing) and my fuel belt – oh yeah, I developed an abscess, literally days before the marathon, and it kept getting more hurty and ginormous. Without being too graphic where it was/is was right where my fuel belt hit and I could feel how much it hurt with every single step I took. Each step hurt more than previous. So I had that going for me too.

            If you ever want to know what you really think about yourself – run a marathon. Every negative thought I have ever thought about myself (probably ever in my life) came out while I was running. “You’re too fat to be running a marathon.” “You didn’t train enough to finish.” “You are not going to finish.” “Maybe this would be easier if you were skinnier.” “Too bad you’re not faster.” “You’re a disappointment.” “You don’t deserve this.”

            There’s more, but I’ll spare you. I did finish. Maybe there is some truth to what I thought. But I finished. Definitely not as fast as I wanted to, but I finished. (When running a marathon, don’t fall at mile 20. Falling is painful but even more so if you have just ran 20 miles and have a 10K to go.)

            I know for certain that I want to run another marathon. There is absolutely no question about that. I entertain an idea of running an ultra (this would be in a few years). If I can train my consistent and learn how to silence the negative thoughts swirling around in my head, my next marathon/race will go way better.

Ironman 70.3 New Orleans 2014

I am officially registered for Ironman 70.3 New Orleans!

Dan (my fiance) put this idea in my head probably around February of this year.  He texted me and said, "It would be so cool to do the half-Ironman in Oceanside [California]."  Side note: Dan was in the Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.  I am from San Diego.  We met there.  Now we live in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Back to the story. I Googled what he was talking about.  I looked at all of the races and immediately knew I had to do at least a half-Ironman. Let me be real here for a minute, when I ran my first half marathon, I knew I would be signing up for a full marathon when I got to Mile 12 - in other words, before I was even finished I knew I would be running a full 26.2 marathon - which I am. So I know that when I do my half-Iron I will be thinking, "when can I do a full Ironman?" 

Dan, of course, was supportive and on board with this adventure. Looking at the half-Ironman calendar, I had only a couple months to pick from. Being in law school, knowing I would be in my third year, graduating, and studying for the Bar Exam, and running the NYC Marathon in November, so the best months for me were: January, February, March, and April.  One of my life goals is to do a race (half-marathon or greater for running and/or Olympic triathlon or greater for triathlons) in every state.  New Orleans seemed perfect for me!  I knew the Camp Pendleton hills would be the death of me for my first half-Iron (and I have done a half-marathon in San Diego and doing the Disneyland Half in August). I have never been to New Orleans and honestly, what better way to see New Orleans than to see 70.3 miles of it?

I am seriously so excited.  I also joined a triathlon training group at the Y.  Training starts today.  The target race is a sprint tri in August. 

The Story of Pegasus

It’s been awhile.  Sorry about that.  In addition to running and tri-ing, I am also a full-time law student and I do the Research Assistant and Teaching Assistant thing too.  Anyways, I completed my first triathlon! It was put on by Ramblin Rose.  A bunch of women from my running group were doing it so, I signed up. A full race report to come! 

For months I had known that I had this triathlon coming up and I trained.  The bike and I have this love-hate-relationship going on.  I really want to love the bike but then I hate it.  And it hates me right back - equally.  Originally, I just bought a stupid cheap mountain bike at Walmart.  I pretty much hated that thing.  Then a week before the race, Dan and I went to all the different bike stores in Charlotte and I got to try out all the different road bikes.  I have never in my life ridden a *road bike* before.  I told Dan this and he just kind of made at me. Lucky for him I know his facial expressions, heh.  

Our next door neighbor is a big-time huge cyclist and as I have been training for my tris he has been super helpful.  My Cyclist Neighbor John had told me to go to Bicycle Sport and said they would help with all of my cycling needs.  My Cyclist Neighbor John also said to try other bike stores, named a few, but that Bicycle Sport would be the best for me.  

I went to another bike store first that was by my school and tried a bike there.  It was sweet!  Mostly because it had pink handle bars.  Dan went to another place by our house that sold Scott brand bikes.  One of my absolute favorite things about Dan (and no, I am not just saying this because we are getting married in less than three months) is that he always takes an interest in my interests and fully supports everything I do and gets involved, but he never over does it.  

I came home from studying (this was during finals time for me) and Dan and I went to Bicycle Sport first.  They sell Trek and Cannondal bikes. The nicest most patient person helped us, Chris.  We told him the bike was for me and I am starting my journey in the triathlon world, doing a half-Ironman in the next year, and I needed a road bike.  We walked over to the women's bikes, he asked how tall I was, then pulled out a beautiful Trek bike.  I loved it pretty much instantly.  But I knew that I should try out other bikes. 

We went to another store, nothing too special happened there.  Then we went to another bike store.  I did not realize how many different bike stores are located near us until that day.  At this bike store we had a very interesting-bad experience.  The sales guy did not ask at all what I would be using the bike for.  He tried selling us on a steel road bike.  I am pretty sure that was the only road bike he had that would be the right size for me.  This is the conversation:
Us: Do you have any non-steel frame bikes?
Sales guy: A steel bike is what you need.  You know for riding around town.
Me: I am going to be using my bike for triathlons. So a lighter bike would be best for me.
Sales guy: No, a steel bike would work best.  Triathlons, it is a short distance on the bike and for you riding around town.
Me: Well the triathlons aren't really a short distance.  A half-Ironman isn't that short.
Sales guy: Yes it is.  It is a sprint.
Us:  Thank you. 

We then went to the store that sells Scott bikes.  I liked them.  Super light weight and the store was awesome.  In all truthiness, I wasn't a fan of how to shift gears on the bike.  Seems petty, I know, but hey I get to be the one shifting the gears, might as well get something I like. 

The next day we back to Bicycle Sport and we bought me Pegasus.  They totally hooked me and Pegasus up!  For example, Chris, the Bicycle Sport guy, made my handle bars pink for me.  He put water bottle things on my bike and toe-jail things on my pedals for me.  And when I am ready for big girl bike-toe-clip-pedal-things they will put on the pedals for me and teach me how to do the whole "clipping in and out" thing.  But here is the best part! Any tune up that Pegasus needs or repairs is free!  Free meaning if I need a new part I pay for the part but they do all the heavy lifting.  But they do so much more than that too.  I was putting air in my tires before a morning ride and I completely snapped the air valve in my tire in half.  They sort of showed me how to change a tube but I did not have the confidence to do it all by myself.  Bicycle Sport was closed that day (Sunday, everything is closed on Sunday or has really limited hours).  I took Pegasus in the next day and they walked me how to change the tube in my tire. 

Bicycle Sport is amazing! 

And the name "Pegasus" seemed appropriate for my bike.  Pegasus delivered Zeus' lightning bolts.  Or if you go with the Disney version, Pegasus was Hercules' horse.  Win-win either way!

My Brick Day

Two weekends ago, Dan (my almost husband) and I did a "brick" session.  I use the quotes because well by brick, what I really mean is that I would have rather gotten beaten by bricks than do what I did. 

Seriously though, I am not a cyclist.  At. All.  I love the water.  I even like running (when I can get out of my own head - more on that in a later post).  But, cycling is the worst.  So why do I want to do triathlons?  Truthfully, because I believe I can do it. 

Ok to the brick session.  We mapped out ONLY TWO miles by our house to ride our bikes then we would come home and run a mile.  My bike isn't anything special.  I just got a bike from *gasp* Wal-Mart because our thinking was it's cheap and if I really enjoy this then we can spend the money and get a real bike after I've done some tris.  We do our ride.  I make Dan go ahead because, honestly, I felt insecure about me being on a bike because I am really that awful and he is awesome on a bike.  We met at home then went on a run. 

Here is what I learned:
1)  Courtney - you need to learn how to use your damn gears
2)  Courtney - you should run more
3)  Courtney - you should do speed work (especially since your first tri is only a 2 mile run)
4)  Courtney - get over your issues about the bike
5)  Train hard so you can trust your training
6)  And seriously Dan is the most patient tolerating human being ever.  Oh and he totally believes more in you than you do of yourself.