EDITOR’S NOTE: Welcome to the athlete journal of Ruth Anderson Horrell, which will be posted every Wednesday. Hailing from New Zealand, Ruth competed in the 2011 and 2012 CrossFit Games and hopes to do the same in 2013. Check in every week to follow all the ups and downs of Ruth’s training for the 2013 CrossFit Games.
Athlete Journal Entry 6 – 4/18/2013
I got a little cold last week. It’s a usual thing for me in the autumn, and when they come they seem to always make my chest ache, playing havoc with my asthma. Yes, I have asthma. It very rarely affects my training now, except if I’m having some allergic response or I have a cold. So, I had to lay off all the crazy row sprints for a few days to let things settle down.
I was a little frustrated by this setback, and then I heard news of a woman who was a sister to a friend of mine. I knew her to talk to in the street, but I was not close to her. She just had her third child, a third wee girl on the first of March, and on the same day was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She passed last week just six weeks after the diagnosis, at the age of 31.
Yesterday I attended her large funeral. She had many people who loved her, as she was such a loving caring person. So, I was reminded:
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Don’t feel sorry for yourself. There is always someone out there worse off than you.
- Life can be taken from us too soon, make sure you spend it doing things you love, with the people you love.