Dear Yoshia & the IF Abbotsford Training Team,
Last January I visited IF thanks to a gift certificate from my friend Sarah. I met with Yoshi for an initial consultation and during our talk, Yoshia you asked me about what I’d like to be able to accomplish. I flippantly said “I don’t know… a half marathon?” and you looked at me and told me that was no problem and you and your team could work out a plan to make that happen.
I secretly laughed about the thought of ME actually doing a half marathon. In highschool I could barely run two laps around the track without nearly collapsing After our talk I decided to focus on getting my body more healthy with a healthy diet and regular excercise, and just see where things went.
I loved the sessions I was able to afford at IF. The trainers were amazing and always made me feel confident about my abilities, which I had never ever seen in myself. Each session left me feeling more confident and proud of the progress I was seeing in the strength that my body had been hiding. The trainers even tweaked our workouts to compliment the 10km run that my excercise partner Leichel and I had started to train for. We successfuly completed that 10km last May. Unfortunately we were unable to continue our sessions due to financial challenges (we both work in the education field and with the impending strike last Spring had to make budget choices knowing what was coming in the future).
Here’s the good news and the reason I am writing you today. This past weekend I completed my first half marathon. Before I had spoken that lofty goal aloud to Yoshi, I had never really ever considered that that might be something I would even dream of attempting. I finished in 2 hours and 54 minutes, meeting my goal of finishing in under 3 hours. My friend and I had trained together, but she unfortunately suffered an injury that made her unable to train with me the last 8 weeks. I kept training on my own, because of the confidence the IF team had given me. NO EXCUSES were good enough to keep me from heading out to complete training runs each week by myself when I really just wanted to stay home.
As an educator I always wonder what happens to my students after they leave my room, hoping some of what I said left an impression on them. So please let your trainers know, that the positive attitudes of each person at IF has had a major impact on my lifestyle and choices. I am confident these choices are going to continue to change my life in the best way possible.
Thank you so much –
Happy IF Member
