{"id":131,"date":"2015-07-09T22:48:49","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T22:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/?p=131"},"modified":"2015-07-09T22:48:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T22:48:49","slug":"tij-blog-post-james-gilliard-saying-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/09\/tij-blog-post-james-gilliard-saying-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"TIJ Blog Post – James Gilliard: Saying Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As we all grow up, there are many proper etiquette items that we are taught. Two of these relate to \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d. In the context of this blog post, \u201cCan you please help me with [x]?\u201d and \u201cThank you for your help with [y]!\u201d While those may seem like simple things, they are both truly important as you move forward on your athletic path. And that\u2019s true for everyone, not just athletes with disabilities (AWD).<\/p>\n

Asking for help is sometimes just as challenging as deciding that you want to participate. This is because everyone\u2019s at a different stage of dealing with their disabilities, and may not be ready to ask for help. They may not see or believe that they need it. Or it may be an issue of pride for them that they don\u2019t want to ask for help. I dealt with some of that myself when I was a teenager, and originally said no to some of the help because I just wasn\u2019t ready to admit that I needed it. I did a short time later, and have long since gotten comfortable with asking for the help I need. But I realize it may not be easy for some. The best suggestion I have for overcoming that is talk through what you need with family and friends, and have them be your sounding board. They\u2019ll help to get you through the initial concerns \/ steps, and it\u2019ll all work out well in the long run.<\/p>\n

Once you get the help you need, you need to make sure that you thank those that have helped you. It doesn\u2019t need to be huge or spectacular; it just needs to happen. Remember that the people associated with the race\/event have helped you to have a great experience, and your guide(s) have given up their time to help you. At a bare minimum, say it verbally to them before you leave the race \/ part company with your guides.<\/p>\n

While it can be as simple as that, you can get creative and as personal as you want. One thing that I do for all the Race Organizers (ROs) that have been kind enough to help me out is to send them at least one group photo from the race in addition to saying thanks. I feel it\u2019s more personal than just a plain \u2018thank you\u2019 e-mail, and it shows them that I truly had a great experience. Another thing that I\u2019ve started doing recently is finding the RO\u2019s Twitter accounts and thanking them personally via after I\u2019ve registered if they\u2019re on Twitter. I\u2019ve started doing that so others can see that that RO is receptive to AWDs. Hopefully that will get others to register. J<\/p>\n

When it comes to your guides, find a personal way to thank them. Throughout the training process for the event\/race, both of you should have gotten to know each other. Not just on a \u2018this needs to be said at this point so we don\u2019t stumble\u2019 level, but also on a personal one. As I\u2019ve trained with both of my coaches, we\u2019ve had these, and so I\u2019ve found personal ways to say thank you for their help. <\/p>\n

To that point, I know that my current coach Terri is part of the Celebrate Differences 5K (http:\/\/www.celebratedifferences.org\/5kinfo.html) race committee. As soon as I found out when the race was, I added it to my schedule, even though I had a 10K the day before. Now with a training run on Friday, I\u2019ll have at least 20K of running throughout the weekend. The total distance doesn\u2019t matter; the point here is that I wanted to help support someone who\u2019s supported me. And after learning that Celebrate Differences will be the charity partner for the FraidyCat races (10K\/5K\/1M – http:\/\/www.fraidycat5k.com\/) in October, I\u2019ve already added that to my schedule. I will be registering for the Ghost Run 10K once registration officially opens.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the bottom line \u2013 please ask people for help when you need it, and say thank you to them when they do. While I had a long list of people I thanked in the \u2018Athlete on the Move\u2019 blog, I need to add one more. Thank you to Rachel Weeks for allowing me to share these blog posts on her site!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we all grow up, there are many proper etiquette items that we are taught. Two of these relate to \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d. In the context of this blog post, \u201cCan you please help me with [x]?\u201d and \u201cThank you for your help with [y]!\u201d While those may seem like simple things, they are … Continue reading TIJ Blog Post – James Gilliard: Saying Thanks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,60,61],"class_list":["post-131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james","tag-james-gilliard","tag-saying-thanks","tag-thank-you"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nocrappyexcuses.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}