The majority of my 55 years spent hanging out on this big blue marble we call earth, have been spent as a pessimist. The reason for this being, I used to tell myself, is that if I don’t expect good things to happen, then I won’t suffer mind-splitting disappointment when things don’t pan out exactly the way I hoped they would.
Within the past couple of decades though, I have shaken this defeatist attitude and my philosometer has been pegging on the cup half full side of life.
Driving home from the salt mines the other day for example a bunny rabbit went hippity hopping across SR410 right out in front of my speeding Malibu…No, I didn’t squash him, or her, or it into pancake style roadkill. It was a rather close call for the frightened little creature though as the guy in the other lane locked’em up to avoid flattening the little bugger.
My point is, I sort of looked upon that as being a good omen of things to come as I watched the rabbit scurry into the brush on the shoulder of the road, apparently safe and sound.
If I may use a four letter word beginning with an H that my former pessimistic self would have loathed to say, I now allow myself to H-O-P-E for certain scenarios or outcomes, somewhat secure in the fact that I ultimately have at least some control in determining my own fate.
Things on the Plateau and the Valley below are starting to look up as of late, especially in the world of sports (and after all what else really matters). Both Bonney Lake and Sumner high schools are going to have great football squads and fabulous girls cross country, soccer and volleyball squads all at the same time.
I digress though, as I often do when I start going off on sports tangents.
I was very excited recently when I found out about a wonderful woman who lives right here in the Lake Tapps area, named Heidi Hubler, who in a few days from now on Sept. 11 will jump aboard a jumbo jet to Henderson, Nev. to participate in the Half Ironman World Championships.
She will not be engaging in this unbelievably cool activity automatically or because this is something she just elected to do on a lark. She had to earn the appearance and she had to train diligently for this appearance. This energetic 36-year-old teacher qualified for the Worlds by finishing third in her age group at the Nationals held in Lake Stevens, Wash. two weeks ago at the USAT sanctioned triathalon by completing the grueling disciplines in 5 hours and 5 minutes flat…That is moovin’ and groovin’ people.
The really nifty element in all of this, is that Huber works in a vocation in which she can make a difference in working with impressionable little minds. She is a first- and second-grade teacher in the Dieringer School District and her ambitious nature is certainly contagious. Hubler said that the majority of her kids are aware of her involvement in this hardcore exercise and either think she is certifiably insane or a super hero.
“The other day I told my students that as kind of a warm-up for the half ironman in Neveda, I was in a bicycle race from Seattle to Portland. Anyway they leaned forward like they were listening intently, so I sort of latched on to that opportunity to teach them a little bit while I had their attention.
“You know kids at that age haven’t been taught distances yet. Lengths and measures are kind of a difficult concept for them to wrap their heads around. So when I told them that it would be like riding their bicycle or tricycle all day long without even stopping to eat dinner or anything, their eyes got real wide as it sunk in and they all said, ‘Wooowww Mrs. Huber! That would be a really fun thing to do.’”.
Mission accomplished Mrs. Hubler.
In fact, doing something fun was how “Mrs. Hubler” got involved in this rather intense and extreme level of exercise.
“When I was earning my masters degree with a bunch of teacher friends of mine back in 1999 at Western Washington University, and we all began to feel like we were getting out of shape. I had always liked doing stuff in the outdoors like skiing, swimming and hiking, but we all decided that we were getting soft around the middle and out of shape. So we all decided to try to get back into to shape and began training, so that we might enter the Women’s Danskin Triathalon in Bellingham,” offered Hubler with a giggle. “Anyway. Do you know what? It wasn’t the big scary deal I thought it was going to be and actually, it was really kind of fun too,” she contended.
Since that life-changing event, Hubler has been in 25 marathons, 15 half Ironmans and three full Ironmans.
A full Ironman consists of swimming 2.4 miles, pedaling a bicycle 112 miles and then running 26.2 miles. According to Hubler, who also teaches a boot camp fitness class for adults at the Tahoma Athletic Club in Lakeland Hills, this last of the three disciplines is where most people hit the dreaded wall, due to the fact that they hadn’t taken in enough nutrition prior to the race or hadn’t trained adequately.
More and more there has been an onset of obesity because children are consuming convenience foods like burgers, fries and milkshakes, packed with grease, sugar, fat and preservatives. Additionally youngsters are leading sedentary, inactive lives, spent in front of video games, x-boxes, televisions or texting on their cell phones.
In that I am not perfect myself, by any stretch of the imagination, I do not judge people. Never have and never will.
So, alrighty then, I will climb my oversized, yet not hypocritical butt down off the soap box now. I just admire and would try to model myself after folks like Hubler.
People like Hubler truly inspire me to at least hit the gym as often as possible and forego slipping into the unhealthy patterns.
I have adopted a new credo to survive by, if you will. Eat so that I can live and no longer live to eat.
