Inside the Arc: Combine to Conquer

I’ve made a lot of excuses about blogging in the last couple of years. These excuses are born from many different reasons.

            I guess I should go back to the beginning and explain why I started my blog.

Anna Goodman is one of the most talented human beings that I know, not only can she DIY a house, she is kind, smart and wrote the best blog. When I was first named to the national team, I was young, I looked up to the older racers, and Anna inspired me, so naturally I had to copy her, and start a blog.

A few of our Anna directed photoshoots.

However, when I first started writing, I thought that this would be a place for my family to keep up with me and possibly, hopefully, just maybe I would find sponsors. Yet, as the years passed, my blog became a place for me to, not only, share my experiences, but learn from them, see the good in them and understand them. I blogged about bad races, trips with my dad, and Christmas in Europe. 

It was a way for me to find the best case scenario, connect with my writing and capture photos of all of this. 

I had many amazing experiences and I shared these with all of you. However, I usually sugar coated some of the tough experiences, and this is the main reason that I stopped blogging. Heading into the year of the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, I had an incredibly tough year. 

Many people know this, but few know the details. I think it was during this time that I stopped sharing. I know that people want to be with you through the ups and the downs, however I can’t explain to you how hard it is to share these downs. You keep hoping for an up, so you can say, “Wow, look what I have been through, but it was all worth it. I have learned and I have grown.” 

Yet, life doesn’t follow these rules. It simply doesn’t work like that, and what I have learned is that the up that I was looking for is sometimes hiding in plain sight. It not only lies in the results that I have as a ski racer, but in who I become throughout this journey, in the people that I inspire, in how many times I get back up, in how I learn how to deal with adversity, in what I learn about myself, and in the amazing angels in disguise that I meet along the way. I didn’t want to relive the hardships, I didn’t feel like I had enough knowledge to contribute, and so my keyboard stayed dormant.

With each passing year, I would promise myself that I would start blogging again, however the excuses began. “What could I ever blog about” “There is no space on my computer for photos” “Blogs are dead, it is the era of instagram” “What if no one likes it” ….. so my blog has not been updated.

However, slowly an idea started forming in my head. What if this blog can be inspiring? What if blogs are fading away, but insight isn’t? What if I start to ask people for ideas? What if this isn’t a one woman job?

 And out of this a new idea was born.

Inside the Arc

My dream is that the community of the athlete world can "combine and conquer". We can give fans, friends, family and young racers a small glimpse into our lives by sharing our stories and knowledge. I want this to come from the perspectives, thoughts and experiences of a variety of people. I want to feature athletes, physios, doctors, parents, and coaches. 

I want this blog to paint a picture, with each brush stroke added by a different person, creating a mural that unites us as one.  I want as many sides to this story to be told as possible. I realized that everyone has a unique journey and that is what I want to share, so that more people relate and we can touch more hearts. As a community I want to share knowledge, inspire people and have fun while doing this.

The guest posts will follow no specific format, they can be in the form of blog posts, short answers, video blog, photo blog, a list, a how to post or something even more cretaive. They might feature what keeps an athlete motivated, or the best ski specific core exercises, or the secrets to packing for many months on the road. I know everyone leads busy lives, so in between these posts I will try to keep things interesting and post my own write ups. 

Let us begin! 

**Please contact me in the contact section on my blog if you are interested in doing a guest post! Thank you!