*guest post at Team NOW

Hello Friends!

My parents have always taught me to surround myself with positive people who inspire me. So I try to hang around people I admire. These people are friends, family members, authors, speakers, professional athletes, etc. I “hang around” them by spending time with them, reading their books, listening to them speak, or watching their videos.

Heather Jackson is one of these people. She’s a professional triathlete and a local hero of mine. Even though I only met her once, I do continue to read about her in news articles and follow her progress as a competitor.

This picture was taken earlier this year in May during a local triathlon we were both competing in. She spent a bit of time talking with me. I appreciated how encouraging she was and I also enjoyed watching her win the next morning.

This week I read an article about Heather on Triathlete.com. It talked about how she is competing in the Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Las Vegas this Sunday. I read that she has been doing some really intense training in Colorado for the past month to prepare. She seems super focused. I was surprised to read she lost 20 pounds in order to improve her run time. I also liked reading about how she’s been working on her mental training. Sometimes it seems like you can be the best athlete, but if you don’t believe you can do it, you can easily be beaten by other people who may not be as fast or as strong as you, but have a stronger mind. Even professionals continue to work on these skills.

I am so excited to see how her race goes on Sunday. I have also been doing a lot of cross-training and will be competing in a Socal Series Championship Triathlon on the same morning. I’m looking forward to the race and I definitely plan to go all out like Heather on race day!

Until next time, have an awesome weekend!