Anticipation

"An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing." - Samuel Smiles

One week....one week, one week, one week! One week until our first race of the season. A small, fun, local-supported sprint triathlon in the foothills of the North Carolina mountains.

During Friday's swim and weights session, we talked about how exciting it will be to put this training to the test -- to see how our bodies respond after to the commitment we've made over the past couple of months. We definitely feel stronger mentally and physically, and the stopwatch has shown that we are taking seconds off (one by one by one....), but there are those small, nagging thoughts of self-doubt that have been creeping up during the occasional lap or mile of a long run.....

What if our race times don't change? What if the fear creeps in and we don't respond? What if we return to old, easy habits instead of putting the lessons of the past couple of months into action when we need them most? After this work, what if nothing happens?

Now, we realize that triathlon is triathlon -- and life is life -- and if all that happens next Saturday is we have a fun, beautiful day of swimming, biking, and running with our family watching, well, then we're luckier than 90% of the world on any given day. But when we've put in the effort, we really do hope to see results.

We wonder if the families living at Genesis Home have some of these same thoughts as they're preparing to transition into living in homes of their own:

What if my life doesn't change? What if the fear creeps in and I don't respond? What if I return to old easy habits instead of putting lessons learned into action? After all of this, what if nothing happens?

For the week ahead: We're visualizing success. We're trusting that we know what we know -- and that the 45 hours of biking, 23 hours of weight-lifting, 34 hours of running, and nearly 68,000 yards of swimming we've put in will make a difference. And, we're keeping it all in perspective.