Leg Day Motivation

It was leg day and I attacked it with a ferocity I hadn't felt in a long time.
What did it? A couple comments from a fellow competitor.
There was chatter on facebook about who was attending the upcoming San Francisco competition on October 2, and Maegan Swain wanted to know which friends were in.
I said I was and here is what she said:

Yaaaay Kristy!...Ill see you there chica. Looking forward to competing WITH you and not tanning all you ladies. bwahaha ;-)
 
How are you feeling anyway? Man you are a MACHINE woman, I don't know how you do all these shows year round.
I then told her I had just been looking at her stunning pictures and was wondering how on earth SHE maintained such a rockin' body and her response was:
 

OMG wutever, you are the most conditioned little thing ever!
Now this may not seem like much to you, but it does to me. This is a woman, 23 years my junior, a stunning model and figure competitor who will be standing right next to me on stage telling me I am a MACHINE and well conditioned!
 
Honestly, you cannot say anything nicer to a gal than how well conditioned she is (at least in the Figure world) .
Maegan is a Figure competitor and is one of the tanning artists at many of the shows I compete in, she also owns her own mobile tanning business MissFit Mobile Tanning in Lincoln, California.
Even though we may be competing against each other, we are still supportive of each other.
I remember when I first started I was told by a seasoned veteran, "don't talk to anyone, just listen to your ipod and stay to yourself, they are mean and catty".
I have not met one woman who was unkind, unhelpful, or unfriendly.
Everyone supports each other, everyone is friendly, we are all suffering in our own way, alone, yet together.
The excitement of fantasizing together about what we will eat the moment we step off stage, and what we will do the days following is an experience that I cannot describe here.
To spend so many months or weeks preparing for a short one day event takes it's toll. Not many will ever understand the emotional roller coaster, even those who live with a competitor may only know bits and pieces. But to spend the day with someone who knows, who has experienced all the same ups and downs, is like having a lifeline at your side. You grow close to complete strangers, and friendships can last a lifetime.
Every one of these women you see standing on stage looking absolutely stunning has worked very hard to get where they are. They have given up the foods that most of their friends and family's take for granted, they have shunned alcohol, cut their sleep short to get to the gym early, passed on events to get back to the gym again at night, and all the while her head keeps telling her she doesn't look lean enough, full enough, tight enough, it goes on and on.
And when it is all over, the sense of accomplishment, the feeling that she is invincible will remain forever. She will gain a sense of power, power over her mind, her body and the world around her.
 
It's the small comments, the little gestures that can turn a bad day into a wonderful, uplifting, motivating day.  And what makes it even more special, is she didn't even know how much she motivated me, she was speaking from her heart, and from her own experiences.
Meeting people like Maegan make competing more than just a personal accomplishment for me, they enrich  my life.


Here is a picture of Maegan, how would you like to stand next to her? I am honored to.