You are running down a road away from a wildfire and you are forced to make a decision: turning right is a hot blaze but its smooth passageway might be safe and turning left is a smoky mess filled with unknown obstacles. Which do you pick? Embracing reality is just that – making the best of a bad situation. There are times when the choices are not great in either direction but you have to pick one and go for it. More simplistic, this is making lemons into the best tasting lemonade you possibly can. This concept can be applied to training and life in general.

What does it take to embrace reality when everything seems dark? The simple answer is your mindset. In endurance running, the effort is 90% mental and 10% physical. You can do anything you convince your mind to do. Just like in sport, life is about mind over matter. It’s not easy but one of my colleagues describes this best: “Those who have good outcomes are the ones who keep the best attitude.” He is completely right. Let’s dive into a few mindsets that can make tackling difficult situations a little easier.

One of the first mindsets is called internal locus of control, which more simply put, is taking ownership of your failures and taking action about the situation. How can you manage the problems instead of your emotions? When I received shocking news about my incidental pelvic mass finding in addition to two pelvic fractures, one of my support squad superstars asked me “What’s your plan to address these?” It was the right motivation at the right time. Learn to pivot and adapt from problems to solutions. When you need help, ask for help. Being in healthcare, navigating the healthcare system was not easy at all. When I needed a second MRI to more closely scrutinize my pelvic mass and was told I had to wait over two weeks, I advocated for my health to expedite my care. My #TrueBlue friends are heroes.

Having patience is not part of my genetic makeup and waiting for the next steps were some of the darkest days of my life. But during the darkest days, this is when you let your support squad carry you. This is when my husband told me everyday that “everything will be okay” when everything seemed far from that. I doubted him as he held me at my weakest points and during my middle-of-the-night mind-racing adventures that catapulted me from anything but sweet dreams.

The next mindset is a growth mindset, or “what can I learn from this” mindset. While dealing with my pelvic mass workup and commuting from one appointment to the next, my pelvic fractures offered me an opportunity to reflect on my training errors. Two marathons in less than six months should have been my first warning that I was headed for disaster, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late. My training life led me to be immune to my body’s signals. Everything was about more mileage, faster training segments, chasing goals that were almost unreachable, while managing a full time career and home duties. Restful sleeping took a hit. When you disrupt your balance of life, something is going to fail because no one is at the top of their game 100% of the time. What have I learned? You’ll read more about this topic in the future but for now, “less is always more.” Less mileage and less intensity while focusing on a more stable foundation and safer approach to training will be a part of my future. I am no longer allowed to find my own ruthless training plans.

The third mindset is learning that gratitude is the best attitude. When life is dark, you have to find something to focus on to bring light back into your life. What are you thankful for today in this moment? Go ahead and jot three of them down. We take so much for granted in life and don’t realize it until we are forced to look fear in the face. Running is a privilege that can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye. Your family is a privilege that can be taken away too soon. Your own life can be up for grabs just when you thought you had everything together. Was my asymptomatic mass malignant or benign? Getting my cancer antigen labs drawn was not a hard task mentally, but clicking on my results was anxiety-driven. Throughout this experience, I remembered a virtual race I did earlier during the pandemic for the Brave Like Gabe Foundation. Gabe Grunewald was a prolific American runner who died of cancer but always embraced optimism in every situation as she fought her battle. And that’s how my gratitude journal started. If I was going to face this gigantic mass, I was going to face it with fierce fire but a heart of gold. Once you start focusing on the positive, the dark days become brighter and your mind gains a sense of clarity.

“You can still make something beautiful and something powerful out of a really bad situation.”

– Gabe Grunewald, professional middle-distance runner

The fourth and final mindset I’ll address is learning to live your life for today.  What brings you happiness?  What allows you to get through the rough days with a smile?  I knew I had to keep myself busy to the max and to keep my support squad schedules’ booked.  I jammed my days to the absolute max, scheduling nature walks around appointments (Thank you, Vicky, Chris, Ellen, and Beth Ann), continuing my plank challenge but firing up my core exercises to a whole new level (Thank you, Coach Garrett), cycling into sunsets including the night before surgery (Thank you, Bjorn), and supporting my husband at his first CrossFit competition since pre-pandemic times (Thank you, Raul).  Living life for today is about appreciating the struggles and choosing joy for the moment you are in right now.  I can tell you that life takes on a whole new meaning when you don’t worry about tomorrow but just enjoy today.

When my cancer antigen labs came back within normal limits, I knew I could breathe a little easier heading into surgery for this gigantic mass.  Tackling surgery while my fractures healed would allow me the best chance for recovery in the safest amount of time.  When my husband told me in the recovery room that preliminary findings were benign, I knew then that he was absolutely right all along: “Everything will be okay.”  The recovery journey was just beginning, but the lemonade we had brewed this entire time tasted sweeter than ever.

(Stay tuned for Part 3: Respecting Recovery – Coming Soon!)