Good Thing I Didn't Try To Be A Nurse

Forgive me, I'm going to take a moment here to toot my own horn. ;)

On Sunday morning before the race, I was walking down to the swim start and heard Nalani's mom call to me... she wished me luck and we chatted for a few minutes... and during those few minutes she completely managed to make my day. You see, she told me about how happy Nalani has been... how dedicated to her training she is... how much she is enjoying it and wants to succeed not only for herself but for me... I have been coaching Nalani since December and in that time she's made some major improvements in all three sports and it's just really fun to watch. I think in my heart I knew all those things that Nalani's mom was telling me, but to hear the compliments from her was really quite the highlight of my day. I don't think I mentioned this on my race report blog, but Nalani placed 5th OA on Sunday, 1st in her very competitive age group.

The following day, Monday, I spent a good bit of time on the phone with another one of my athletes who had a serious bike crash earlier in the season. She'd been entered in IMCDA and even though she had complete reconstructive surgery on her shoulder because of a grade 5 separation 5 weeks ago, she was still hoping to be able to race in Idaho. She felt very discouraged because so many people were calling her crazy and telling her she couldn't do it... the fact of the matter is that she could do it, if she wanted to... the conflict was that she didn't just want to go finish... she's done that before. This time she wanted a Kona spot. It was a delicate balance on my part, trying to be supportive while also being realistic at the same time... we finally came to the conclusion that she will be better off this year if she re-thinks her goals... so that's what we're going to do. It sucks for her, because she has the talent and the drive and the will and the dedication to really give it a shot, but she's gonna have to wait until she's all 100% healed up so she can train the way she needs to to reach her goals. Before we hung up the phone on Monday night, she told me how much she appreciates being able to talk to me... that she always feels so much better after we get off the phone... that in fact, her boyfriend and her roommates tell her to call me when she's getting down on herself because they have seen her spirits lift after our conversations. Man, that makes me feel good to hear that.

And then yesterday another athlete called in a complete panic ('A' races are coming up soon... 'tis the season for panic!)... 20 minutes later I had talked her down off the ledge and when she was able to breathe again she reiterated some of the same things I'd been hearing from my other athletes over the last few days... that she always feels so much better after talking to me.

So I've been coaching for 6 months now and it appears I am a good fit for the job. :) I have a couple of new athletes coming on board now too which is exciting... I think I may have to cap myself off soon though so I make sure I can still manage everyone appropriately while also starting that Coffees Of Hawaii sales job next week. I'm gonna be a busy mama!

Horn tooting over. Now you know what I'm NOT good at? Being overly empathetic to my husband when he's got a staff infection in his knee and it hurts to walk. I know he really is in pain, but let's be real here. While cleaning up after himself is clearly completely out of the question, somehow he can muster up the energy to get himself the ice cream out of the freezer... I guess I can't help but think that if he were a woman, he would still manage to figure out how to take care of himself and his child even though his knee hurts. Why are women so much better at this kind of thing? Phew. Good thing I didn't try to be a nurse. That is most definitely not my calling. Sorry, Scott.