My new reality.

Today started off like any other Friday. Took Tricia to school and headed to the gym before heading to my awesome chiropractor, Kevin O'hara of Arlington Heights.

As I was driving to the gym my stomach started hurting very badly. It was kind of hurting when I woke up, but not this bad. I was trying to decide if I should still go to the gym or not and then I decided that if I got a stomach ache on race day I would have to deal with it and push on, so that is what I did today, I dealt with it and pushed on.

I headed into the gym and up to the locker room, and got ready, feeling worse. The Buehler YMCA, where I work out when I am in Palatine, has a workout room in the women's locker room and it has a treadmill, so I decided since I wasn't feeling so hot I would work out in there. That way in case I needed a bathroom I had easy access. I'm glad I did that. After three minutes of running and I had another type of running to do. I ran to the bathroom grabbing a trash can along the way.

I ended up not throwing up, but spent quite a bit of time in there knowing my workout was over for the morning. I ended up crying in the bathroom stall. A lady from the Foglia YMCA that I swim with was there and another great lady Charlie was there. They both talked to me until I felt well enough to leave.

I don't know if this was Chron's or if this is me just getting sick (my coach told me the flu is going around right now), but what I realized is that this is my new reality. I may get all the way to the gym and my body won't let me work out. There will be days, like this past Tuesday, when my stomach was hurting and I just stayed in bed and rested. There will be days where I will have no symptoms and will be able to work out like a rock star. I just need to take one day at a time and listen to my body.

One thing today, that I am very proud of, is that regardless of whether or not I had a stomach ache, I still got to the gym and gave it a go. Another thing that I am proud of is that I knew when to stop and call it a day. These are new concepts for me. In the past I would use any excuse not to work out and I also didn't know when to stop at times and would push when I shouldn't have and have hurt myself. So today showed me again, how far I have come in my journey.

Today showed me what my new reality is, but I also know that my reality is that I am an athlete and I will continue to push forward, test my body, and do what I can to reach my athletic goals.