Moving Forward

Not much has happened since I last posted. My time at home in Canada in September was amazing, I had a great time. Especially being apart of the Canadian Olympic Team celebrations in Ottawa and Toronto was amazing. It was such an honor to meet Prime Minister Stephen Harper and receiving the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal. It was such a fun way to cap off the Olympic year and celebrate with the rest of the Canadian Olympic team and be celebrated by all of our fans in Canada. 

At the end of my time in Canada I was able to hold a free clinic in Peterborough, my hometown, to give back to everyone who supported me and was interested in learning how to racewalk. I had a great turn out considering the on and off rain all morning. It was great to see people improve their technique over the course of the clinic and I hope they continue to racewalk.

Now since I have been back home in San Diego, I have started back training slowly and just trying to get back to enjoying to train and racewalk again. It still has been a struggle to get over my Olympic performance. I am learning to "forgive" myself for what happened. I saw a quote one day that really hit home with me and helped me realize how to move on from the Olympics. It was:

"Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future." - Lewis B. Smedes

This quote has helped me a lot and now I am able to not think about my race at the Olympics as often and to move forward with the exciting long career I have ahead of me. 

Now we only have a few other racewalkers here to train with. I have Miranda Melville (2nd place at USA Olympic Trials) and Tim has Andreas Gustafsson (3:50 50km racewalker from Sweden). The group has definitely gotten smaller but its been fun to be with such a committed group. 

Tim and I will be heading to Las Vegas, NV in 2 weeks to do the Rock N' Roll half marathon there for fun and training. We have had the opportunity to do this race two times before and its so much fun to walk on the streets along the Vegas strip. I would highly recommend this race to anyone and everyone! 

Tim and I now have 3.5 weeks until we start our Christmas trip where we will be in Long Island, NY, Tim's hometown, for 5 days, my hometown of Peterborough, Canada for a week and then a week in Pharr, Texas again for our annual Junior racewalk camp where we have almost 40 kids coming from around the country. Lots of exciting events coming up! 

Keep on walking,

Rachel