{"id":2031,"date":"2016-04-12T20:41:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-13T00:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=2031"},"modified":"2016-04-12T20:41:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T00:41:43","slug":"what-is-a-sweet-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/?p=2031","title":{"rendered":"What is a S.W.E.E.T. Ambassador?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SWEET_2016_WEBSITE_PHOTO\"<\/p>\n

A month or so ago Mike Caldwell, Mad Trapper race director, asked if I would be willing to host a table for trail running and Madtrapper events at the annual Bushtukah “S.W.E.E.T.” night. \u00a0This is a women’s evening hosted at Bushtukah’s Richmond Rd. store and its title stands for “Sporty Women’s Empowering Evening of Tips and Advice”. \u00a0Mike asked me to step in since all participants, even those working at the tables, had to be women. \u00a0Imagine, if you will, an all female race expo that includes a fashion show, unbelievable prizes and inspiring guest speakers. \u00a0Also imagine the incredible energy in a room full of 500+ women who want to take on physical challenges and live life to the fullest.<\/p>\n

I will admit to being a little proud of the fact that Mike asked me to represent trail running and the Mad Trapper. \u00a0I am still fairly new to trail running and I am certainly not at the front of the pack… or the middle for that matter! \u00a0But he felt that I could represent what his events are about – getting out there, challenging yourself, enjoying the outdoors and the social nature of trail runners.<\/p>\n

To prepare for the evening I did some research as I had never attended a S.W.E.E.T. night before. \u00a0In the process of learning about it I discovered that Bushtukah was also looking for S.W.E.E.T. Ambassadors. \u00a0Five women of any age and fitness level would be chosen based on their applications to help promote achieving personal fitness goals. \u00a0Applicants were required to have a “personal first” planned for 2016, volunteer at a minimum of one event during the year and be active on social media, giving goal updates and sharing with other women stories of fitness. \u00a0Bushtukah in return would offer some very generous discounts and gift certificates as well as a Sugoi vest. \u00a0Needless to say I didn’t hesitate to apply and was very excited to find out that I had been chosen. \u00a0As for what my first will be, well a little more on that later.<\/p>\n

That excitement increased even more once I was at the S.W.E.E.T. event on Sunday night. \u00a0To be truthful I was not prepared for the energy and enthusiasm of all the women attending. \u00a0To enter, tickets had to be pre-purchased with all proceeds – \u00a0$3,070! – going to the Ottawa School Breakfast Program. \u00a0Despite already having tickets, women still lined up outside 45 minutes before the event started!<\/p>\n

I had a great time talking with so many different women about trail running and promoting the Madtrapper Power in Pink Trail Run<\/a> that will be held this summer. \u00a0There were many women who voiced their desire to trail run but were nervous about starting – exactly how I felt not that long ago. \u00a0But if any event was going to convince you to try something new, the S.W.E.E.T. night\u00a0 was it.<\/p>\n

Once everyone had time to wander and look at all the tables, we all grabbed a seat and were treated to two guest speakers. \u00a0Sharon Donnelly spoke about the need for “me”, and the importance of giving yourself permission to focus on yourself. \u00a0Sue Halloway talked about the importance of encouraging girls to participate in sport and to recognize that how girls approach new challenges is in fact very different from boys. \u00a0Let’s just say we women spend a lot of time worrying about being accepted and wondering if we have the skills to meet the goals, and these characteristics start at a young age.<\/p>\n

Between speakers, myself and fellow Ambassadors were introduced to the crowd and some incredible draw prizes were awarded. \u00a0To give an idea of the scope of prizing, everything from full running outfits to free shoes were handed out. \u00a0The final prize of the night? \u00a0A bike! \u00a0If I had won that I might have actually been willing to take up biking!<\/p>\n

The whole evening was inspiring and energizing. \u00a0I sometimes think that as women we unleash our insecurities by comparing ourselves to each other and in turn sometimes being critical of other women. \u00a0But there is so much power and joy that comes from supporting one another and cheering others on, no matter their goals. \u00a0When I was running Around the Bay this year there was a women in front of me who had a handwritten bib on her back stating she had just had a baby 5 months ago. \u00a0My first thought was, “How awesome is that?” \u00a0But the second line written rubbed me the wrong way. \u00a0It asked, “What’s your excuse?” \u00a0I felt like that question, though I am sure meant to be inspirational, just once again put women against women in a competition to see who could be the better female. \u00a0I wasn’t a runner before children so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think I would have been running 30k only months after having either of my children. \u00a0I am truly in awe of someone who can, but I felt like that bib had a critical edge to it, a, “Well if I can do it you should be doing it too and if you can’t, whats wrong with you?” feel to it. \u00a0Let’s just stop doing that. \u00a0Let’s celebrate our accomplishments and appreciate that the accomplishments are different for everyone. \u00a0Hey, if your accomplishment was managing to get your teeth brushed in between nursing a fussy baby and attempting to grab a nap after a sleepless night, that is awesome and you have my greatest admiration. \u00a0I love the fact that the S.W.E.E.T. night embraced all of us, whether regular fitness enthusiasts or women who are just on the first steps of something new to improve their well-being and happiness. \u00a0I hope that as an ambassador I can offer up a little bit of that power of support in 2016.<\/p>\n

And as for that first I am going to do this year… Run for the Toad 50k, here I come!<\/p>\n

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A month or so ago Mike Caldwell, Mad Trapper race director, asked if I would be willing to host a table for trail running and Madtrapper events at the annual Bushtukah “S.W.E.E.T.” night. \u00a0This is a women’s evening hosted at Bushtukah’s Richmond Rd. store and its title stands for “Sporty Women’s Empowering Evening of Tips […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-running"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3amQ2-wL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/raz-family.ca\/RunKristi\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}