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Early Goodbyes, Jellybean Addictions & Campaigning...

Wednesday, 20 May 2020 23:10

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.”

By Jenna Horner

Let’s see, where to start. (Yes, that is me in the photo, which appeared on NPR.com on April 1)

The Beginning
March was probably the biggest cluster f*** of my life. One weekend I found livening it up at a college party clueless of what was to come. The next weekend racing my first EDR down in Florida with one of my GW teammates where we first got wind of other schools going online. The next few days I had my last ever in-person classes before classes were canceled for two weeks and I said goodbye to all of my college friends and teammates two months too early. The next weekend I was driving back down to Florida to race again. On hour 7 of the drive that race was canceled. After spending a week of social distancing in Florida it was back to D.C. in hope that we would return to normal classes after the two-week break from in-person classes. That clearly did not happen and now we are here....

Quarantine Life
Other than my new addiction to starburst jellybeans and my new weekly battle with Instacart, I have to say not much has changed in my daily life. I made the decision to stay in D.C. until the end of the semester instead of going home. I have relatively kept the same schedule: train, school, train, sleep. I am also lucky that I still have a job to go to that gets me out of my tiny apartment. Bike shops have been deemed essential, so I get to keep wrenching for now. I do miss sitting in a coffee shop, working out with my team and seeing people on a regular basis, but the slow-down has been refreshing in this big city. Oh, and I learned how to give marine regulation hair-cuts.

Coping with Canceled Races and Current Training
Although I was devastated when my last collegiate nationals were canceled/postponed, I have bounced back with a new fervor for my triathlon journey. Recently I have been reflecting on the attitude statement I had to memorize when I was a GW Gymnast. The end of the statement reads, “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I think it’s important that we all come to terms with the fact that canceled races are out of our control, this is the 10%. The next 90% of our outcome from this pandemic is on us. For me, I have focused on what is immediately in front of me and what I can control. Things I have focused on are: being mentally and physically ready for my key workouts, getting nutrition in right after each workout (something nearly impossible with my old schedule) and changing up my routes since I have time to get lost. The hardest thing for me was coming to terms with not being able to work on my weakest sport, the swim. After finishing my first quarantine block of training though, I have realized that this pandemic gave me a chance to focus on my run, my second weakest sport, something I would not have put a lot of focus on if I still had pool access. So, for now I am taking triathlon day-by-day and focusing on things I can control, not the uncertain future.

My Return to Minnesota
Don’t worry, I promise I am coming back! Once my semester ends, I will be returning to Minne as I have taken a job on the Tina Smith campaign. I am so thankful that I was one of the lucky college seniors to find employment in this pandemic and I am so excited to race in our great state when things go back to “normal.” For now, I hope to see some of you out on the trails/roads grinding 6-feet away from me.