I got the first gift in the mail a few days ago, two little bags with a note that said "one for you and one for your daughter". What was in the little bags? A little running shoe with "sole sisters" stamped on the plate behind it.

~ tears ~

I put them on a chain each and we have worn them every day since. My daughter is five and she came last in her first triathlon a couple of months ago and she'll probably come last in her cross country race tomorrow... She's got her mother's speed (or lack of) but she doesn't give up.

She excitedly wore her necklace to school on Friday and at news time proudly told her classmates about how a stranger from the internet gave us special necklaces that mean we are running buddies.

Today the second gift arrived in the mail, a bright green headband that says KAMAI OR BUST

~ tears ~

See, I told my Santa I had a secret goal to run next year's Kaimai Goat race because I thought it would be pretty badass but it's a secret goal because it seems so impossible. I had a secret goal at the very start of this year to run a triathlon at the end of the year. It was a secret because it seemed so impossible and I didn't want to look silly if I never did it. I did three triathlons at the end of the tri season this year, the first was six weeks after I first thought my secret goal, so you see, my secret goals have a habit of just kind of happening.

So over the next year, I'll be hitting the trails in my bright green headband and when someone asks why it says KAMAI OR BUST, I'll say it's because the sweetest internet stranger wants to make sure my secret goal happens, I'm training for the Kaimai Goat, and I'm gonna rock that race dammit!