Progress before perfection

Hi everyone!

Hope you had an amazing start into the new week and are taking care of your bodies. I recently (this past Thursday to be exact) pulled something in my left hip, so trying to take extra care these days. Stretching, foam rolling and strength training should still be integral parts of our marathon training as we ramp up the miles in the coming months. Looking to go to the doctor and massage therapist this week, so wish me good luck and all the healing energy.

I think I was still on the post-Hood 2 Coast high from that special weekend and instead of taking more days and time off, I started running again. I mean, in earlier times, that was totally possible, but my running in the past months has been kind of inconsistent and reckless. Jumping into races is probably not the smartest way to start training for a marathon (lol!). Anyways, what can I tell you from that weekend? How was it? It was amazing, exciting, but also stressful and really a lot at the same time. People got lost, ran additional miles, the organisation (from H2C) was pretty bad, but all in all, for everyone who never experienced Hood2Coast before, it was tons of fun.

You're running alone, but with a team together all at once. You get to free your mind and run your heart out. You get to cheer on strangers and teammates. You get to celebrate and connect with like-minded folks. Of course, I was nervous going into this weekend, unsure about how things will work out. After having put so much work and emotional labour into this, I wanted everyone to have a stellar experience. And I am so so happy that I fought for more female runners. Something others took lightly, but I truly believe that having more diverse people part of this experience really changed the whole energy.

Can I say it? I am just really proud of myself. I wanted to pull out so many times. The way I was treated, talked over, dismissed, ignored. Being the person who I am, I didn't want to stay quiet and do nothing about this male dominant space. I didn't create a team to enter a space in which our voices are left unheard. Sitting in a room with 7 men, being the only woman to advocate for women, I didn't want to comfort myself with the 'I just want to run' mentality. It's so easy to say and do that. What a privilege. I recall an interview with Megan Rapinoe, in which she said something along the lines: 'when I go out to play, I know I have to play it twice. When I go out and prove something, I know I have to do it 2 times, for people to understand and get it.'

That's how I feel in a lot of ways, we as women (of color) have to put in 2x as much work in, have to prove ourselves so many more times. And when we do go out, we just don't do it for ourselves. But for so many more women and girls to come. It would be too easy to go out there, run and train with the fast guys and call it a day. Nope, I am so much more interested in what we can do to sustainably create change in our community. Also, representation matters. And after that weekend, I realised too: that my hyper sensitivity is what allows me to grow and create change. That sometimes I just have to let go of all the people, who are not down for the mission, who are draining my energy, and who don't see the bigger picture. And in other times, some of them, can become allies.

I guess that's what you call progress.