Surround Yourself With The Best

We have all heard that we need to surround ourselves with the best. Their are so many reasons that it is important to do this. But this weekend at a run I was reminded of just why it’s so important.

Along with showing horses I enjoying running. I have ran multiple 5k’s and have ran a 10k. I am hoping that I can get some bigger and longer runs on my resume someday. I think that I like running because in a lot of ways it is a lot like showing horses. You have to do the work! You are competing against other people but really you are competing against yourself. You have trained hard and know what you can do at home and what you did the last time and you are trying to get better then what you were the last time. Run’s and horse show’s have same kind of people. You have the really good people that are trying to get ready and are friendly but focused on getting ready to compete. You have the people that are weekenders that try really hard but are there to have fun and beat their best time. You have the people that come with the wrong equipment and don’t know how to even register but are asking questions and trying to figure out what they need to do and hungry to learn. Then you have those that haven’t trained and are telling everyone about either how “lucky” the winners are, or why they aren’t going to do very well. At the run’s I am definitely a weekend warrior that is going to give it hell but really has no intentions of winning but I do know what time I ran the last time and I plan on beating that goal.

Before the race started this weekend I was able to chat with two people. One was a girl that I helped get her starting packet and understand where to put her number and how the timing worked. I was so excited for her. She had been training hard at home and was so scared yet so excited to be trying something way out of her comfort zone. The other was a man from Arizona who got to talking about different training strategies. He had explained to me that had been able to train with Olympic runners and learned a lot from them. He told me he was “lucky” but I am thinking that kind of dedication to run at that level takes a lot of hard work and pain and a lot of sweat equity not so much luck.

During the run I was having a pretty good run but it got really hot around mile 2 and getting to the 2.5 mark it was getting hard to keep pushing on. But at 2.85 who did I see but the old man (His words not mine he explained he was in the 58 age group), he was cooling down and when he saw me he started yelling “Whip and Spur Horse girl! Your in the home stretch push hard! Only 30 seconds left you can do anything for 30 seconds! Don’t leave any energy on the table no regrets!” (Obviously we had talked about horses in our short talk before the race because I don’t think I can go any time without talking about them.) You know what that encouragement helped me push just that much harder and I was able to finish that hot 5k with one of my best times and no regrets. I had put it all out there! He didn’t have to encourage me. He could have just said “keep going, good job!” but he went the extra mile. That’s what winners do. He put in the work, he trained probably a lot harder then what I had to be able to be so far ahead of me. He cheered on his fellow competitor because he knew that shinning a light on someone else and helping them out didn’t take anything away from his great accomplishment of being in the top 15 to come in. And he knew what it took to get that far.

So when I saw the girl that I had talked to in the morning nearing the finish line after I had cooled down I was there at the finish line cheering her on! You know what? That felt almost as good as when I had crossed the finish line. I don’t know her but I did know that she worked hard to finish that race and she had accomplished a huge feat! Your first run is always the hardest!

Horse shows are the same way you generally see the good people cheering on everyone. They say that conversation is different among the winner and I feel like that is so true. I have been so lucky to ride with some of the best riders in the nation and they have never made me feel like amateur that I am. While I have also rode with the people that always have an excuse for why they don’t win and I have never felt like such a horrible rider. The conversation with winners is always one of pushing just a little harder and by making others better you also make yourself better.

I think that surrounding yourself with the best goes for anything in life. When you surround yourself with the best you talk about goals and dreams and make a plan for how to achieve those dreams and goals. When you surround yourselves with the average joe’s or the loser’s they can take you down the easy path of coming up with excuses of why you can’t do something or why those that are successful are just “lucky.”

I hope that you are surrounding yourself with the best. You will know because the conversation is different. You will be working on crushing goals and planning on how achieve those wild dreams. I am so grateful for the people in my life that the best and help me keep my focus on working hard and training for that win!