As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Korea February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. I was wrong. I stayed, launched my first company, Flipside Fitness, and then opened Korea's largest boxing club, Hulk's Boxing (now called Hulk's Club).

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and returned to Toronto, Canada. But then I left again.

Now I live in the Philippines where I am the CEO and head coach of Empowered Clubhouse, the Philippines' first and only boxing clubhouse exclusively just for women. I also am the founder of the Lil' Sistas Project, CEO and designer of Slay Gear and Baa Baa Black Sheep .Ph.

Monday, November 04, 2013

Pressure Building... Monday, November 4

Only 6 more sleeps until the "Next Time" 10km run... and WOW President came by the club to tell me.

Only 3 more runs until the "Next Time" 10km run... and WOW President came by the club to inform me.

As if the pressure wasn't already increasing now that I'm in the last week of prep for this race, today I got an extra serving of pressure over a chicken party WOW President surprised us with tonight at the club.  As it turns out, this race that I am registered in with WOW and some other members of my club, all but one of us is NOT registered.

WOW isn't registered and this is what WOW President came by the club to say to me.

He is merely running it to see that I do it and to push me.  He broke the news to me that he in fact never did register but that he wants to be my 'pace maker', meaning he is going to run beside me the whole race and egg me on to go faster.

No pressure.

Only the man I owe practically my left arm (and right arm too for that matter) will be right beside me for the full 10km.  This is no longer a race against him or a race against my goal time of 49mins. This is a race in which my sportsmanship, self motivation and ability to handle extra added pressure will be fully on display for him.

The sportsmanship, no worries. I got that one down.  Leave it to me to high five fellow runners, and yell out the names of my friends running.  I never fail to have some random competitor strike up a conversation with me or end up as my race running partner.
The self motivation, am good for the too given my dependence on a pumping play list blasting through my earphones, my fear of not making myself proud, and my stubbornness that refuses me to fail.

The extra added stress, am good for that too though I must admit I occasionally have a way of fear and self doubt that hits my thoughts late at night. It always happens when I can't fall asleep and I look over to see how peaceful Snickers is sleeping beside me.  Nothing seems to disturb his amazing ability to fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.  Me, on the other hand, that's when my mind wonders and I start to dissect my thoughts.  I got this though. The added pressure keeps me tight on my training schedule and pushes me to continually train out of my comfort zone. Having said this however, my problem isn't in pushing myself out of my comfort zone, instead it's in how extreme I go with it at times.  Running out of my comfort zone has included running in the dead heat of the day, running with a weighted vest on, and running either super early or so super late. 
I know how to push myself, I do that quite well on my own, so I find it amusing sometimes when others think I need their push. 

My problem isn't a need for a push, it's a need to perhaps relax.

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