Self-esteem is not for sale.
You can’t buy it.
But you can cultivate it – from within yourself, through personal experience.
There are a lot of opportunities to buy products and services that make you feel better today – and, believe me, I am an avid consumer of many of them (my morning coffee, the occasional dessert, frequent massages at the spa…). But it’s only the personal experiences you have that can create a perpetual degree of self-esteem that is available for you to reference as needed throughout the more challenging episodes of your life.
It’s one of the reasons we launched the Ramblin’ Rose Women-only Triathlons program.
These events will take place this October in Chapel Hill and in Charlotte, NC, and they are designed to celebrate the empowerment of women. The Ramblin’ Rose Women-only program complements the Girls On The Run mission for 7-12 year old girls and extends the impact to women of all ages and abilities – building self-confidence, and, more importantly, self-respect through athletic participation and personal challenge.
As I watched the inaugural Ramblin’ Rose event last autumn in Chapel Hill, amidst cooler than usual temperatures and perpetual rain, the individual attitudes, efforts, and accomplishments at the finish line were truly inspiring.
With a capped-out field of 400 females, we had over 210 first timers that day and participants of all types of athletic abilities crossed the finish to cheers, roars, and I even saw a group of spectators doing ‘the wave’ for several minutes as women raced down the final meters in the pouring rain. It was a privilege to be part of the experience and I look forward to this year’s endeavor into Charlotte, as well to the second annual Ramblin’ Rose in Chapel Hill.
If you’re excited about the possibility of you – AND you have two X chromosomes – check out our Ramblin’ Rose feature inside and see why women’s apparel innovator SkirtSports is stepping up to provide the official fitness apparel for this program.
Other events (like the Tour de Femme women-only bike ride scheduled for this October out of Cary, NC) and programs (like the various women running groups and training programs) strive to provide similar opportunities to our female community. All of these women-only events seem to bring out a different type of female participant – many are embarking on their first athletic experience, more are just looking for something different that is designed ‘just for them’. Either way, the end result is clear: more women in our community with a deeper level of self-esteem that permeates how they live each day, ultimately improving the health and quality of our collective community.
Self-esteem may not be ‘available in stores’, but the beautiful thing is that it is always there waiting for you – at the end of your early morning run, at the other end of the pool, at the top of that climb, and on the other side of the finish line.
