2018
is here, and I am taking this time to reflect on the many blessings 2017
has given me. I have reached a great
milestone in my career with surpassing my goal of 10 million in sales for the
year. I have had the pleasure of working
with so many people I really like to fulfill their House Dreams.
I
begrudgingly started my real estate career back in 2003 at my Realtor Mother’s
urging. I remember telling her just a few months in, “I can’t believe I get
paid to talk on the phone and communicate around the clock,” and 15 years
later, I still feel the same way. I do a lot more than talk on the phone, but
this is the best career ever for me, and I’m looking forward to the next 15 years!
With
my partner Bill by my side, we have been fortunate to partake in some cool
adventures. The year of unfinished business, we would return to Comrades in
South Africa and to Spartathlon in Greece to avenge our unfinished races.
On the way to Comrades, we ran the Glass City
Marathon in Bill’s hometown Toledo, finishing together. We also completed the hilly, challenging
Strolling Jim 42 miler in Tenessee walker horse country to prepare for the
hills. The weather at Comrades was record hot, and we both struggled, so Bill
will have to finish this one another year. The staff at our hotel remembered us
from the year before, and we enjoyed the welcoming kindness of the South Africa
running community.
We
thoroughly enjoyed South Africa, spending several days around Capetown, and
then a quick excursion to majestic Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. One of the
highlights was running in a local half marathon in a very poor suburb of
Capetown. We gave out a lot of race shirts, and donated our prize money to the school sponsoring the race.
You
are probably wondering when I was working. Truthfully, I had my phone and
computer in tow, and was running my business remotely the entire time. Our
world has really become so much smaller, and there are few spots without internet.
I
made some important changes to my business in 2017, and they will allow me to
deliver you an even better level of service. I hired a wonderful full time
member to my team, Christina Burget, a past customer, and long time friend. She
is smart, organized, and a survivor. She just won the fight over a very nasty
breast cancer, and she jumped in with both feet to run my growing business. You
will notice some new marketing ideas, and a complete package that would be
impossible to deliver with just myself.
I
decided to set my bar higher, and I joined Remax Specialists in September. The
uber professional office environment, experienced management team and office
staff, and lineup of only experienced agents, combined with the national reach
of Remax has proven to be a game changer for me already.
One
of my mentors told me to get a relaxing hobby to relieve stress, when my
business really took off. I have
running, but she felt I was too competitive at running. I used to play bridge
way back when, so I decided to take it up again, but only for relaxation. You
all probably know I have two speeds………….full speed, and sleeping. It wasn’t long before I was competing at a
high level, reading, studying.
Bill
and I have been fortunate to represent the State of Florida at the National
level three times before, so we were elated to again with the Grand National
Teams, and a trip to Toronto. We played our hearts out with our teammates, two
Jacksonville attorneys, and won enough to make it to the Round of 8. We played in
a very quiet, closed room where you cannot even see your partner, and we lost
to the team who would eventually win the event.
We were very proud to be in the top eight teams in the country. Even
playing bridge at a high level is relaxing and a nice break from the world.
Last
year I barely made it over a particular mountain in the middle of Greece. That
mountain ripped me to the core and threw me into a negative spiral of despair.
I could not get my mind back in a positive place, and I had to drop out of the
2016 Spartathlon at Mile 112. There are very few things I have not finished,
and I was determined to get back and finish this 153 mile monstrosity of a
race.
I was also scared……….what if I couldn’t
finish? I was born with a rare vision disorder whereby I only see in two
dimension. In essence I have no depth perception, and the world looks flat to
me. I routinely trip over curbs, uneven sidewalks, obstacles on trails, and I
am horrible at nearly all ball sports. That didn’t stop me from trying everything.
After
last year’s race, we went back to the mountain in daylight, and climbed over
and back. I tried to memorize the
switchbacks and terrain, so that I could do better next year. We spent the entire year, acquiring better
lights, shoes, anything that could help climb a mountain at night at mile 99 of
an exhausting race. I practiced running at night with different lights. I
worked on keeping a positive mindset during difficult points of other races,
and coming back from lows.
We
completed three big races in the last few months leading up to the Spartathlon,
each designed to challenge and prepare me for the biggest challenge of my life.
My real estate business was growing so much, that my running had suffered. I
was not hitting anywhere near the weekly mileage I needed, and I was running
out of time.
River
to Sea 12 Hour was an extremely hot test of endurance in July in Florida. I
struggled the entire race, but never gave up. I had stomach issues most of the
day, but I continued to move forward, even if it was slowly and painfully. This
was a huge wakeup call that I was not even remotely ready for Spartathlon, but
I’d just have to get ready. I managed to complete the same 63 miles that I did
last year, albeit nowhere near as easily.
The
market made its normal Back to School slowdown in August, so I embraced the
long, hot days with lots of running, sometimes twice per day, and at all
different hours of the day and night. We took the once in a lifetime chance to
view the total solar eclipse in the zone of totality, so we headed to South
Carolina with a purpose. I found a crazy
race the day before, where we’d have to run a 5K every hour on the hour for 10
hours…..a difficult and hot challenge.
Bill and I both completed each 5K in a heat index that reached over 100
in the early afternoon, but it was time well spent working on my fortitude and
patience. The Eclipse itself was amazing, eerie, and other worldly.
I
needed one more long running weekend to feel confident about Spartathlon, and
48 hours around a 1 mile loop was going to be it. I decided to treat this as three long efforts
with sleep breaks in between, rather than one 48 hour effort. I wanted to run at all hours of the day and
night on tired legs and mind. A Race for the Ages was one of the most enjoyable
races ever. You get an extra hour for each year you are older than 48, and
anyone 48 and younger gets 48 hours to run as far as he or she wishes. Bill got
a 14 hour head start on me, so I cheered him on at the start and got a great
night’s sleep at the hotel.
It
was so much fun getting to know the incredible cast of characters at this wacky
race. My goal was to run 50 miles on each of the first two days under the 9:30
Spartathlon cutoff. The first day I ran hard most of the day, and finished 50 miles
easily in about 8:45. The second day was much warmer, so I finished my second
50 miler at closer to 9:30. I slowed
down a lot to walk the last few loops, so I could finish 100 miles with my
sweetie, Bill Page!!!! We finished that
100th mile arm in arm, and I
could not have been more proud. This guy
never gives up………in his own words, running for him hurts every single step, but
he always pushes himself to new limits, and we experience ultra running
together.
We
shoveled in some delicious food, and slept fitfully, sore and tired. My goal was to just sleep a few hours, and
then get back out there to pace a friend who was not having a great day, but to
also run with tired mind and legs. I
woke up after just a 2.5 hours of sleep and hit the road. It was dark, peaceful, and cool. My legs felt
pretty darn good and I ran pretty easily with 1-2 short walk breaks each
mile. I racked up pretty good mileage
until sunrise. Usually the sunrise gives everyone renewed energy to continue,
but in this case, it made me feel hungry, so I stopped for a big breakfast,
which was probably a mistake.
Sitting
down for a half hour made me stiff and tired, and it was getting hot in a
hurry. If I kept running and walking slow and steady I could finish some good
mileage. I was doing more walking then running, but nearly everyone was walking
at this point. I walked the last few
laps with Bill Page, and we ended up with 104 and 141 miles respectively. Not a bad weekend for Team Soo-Page!
Fast
forward a few weeks later, and here I am in Athens, Greece, just 24 hours out
from the toughest challenge of my life.
I woke up late, so I scrambled around to prepare my race day nutrition
bags, and lay out what I’d need at every stage of a 36 hour race………..
Fall came and it was time to begin season 7 of
Marathon High. I have been a proud sponsor of Marathon High for 3 years and
coaching students at Douglas Anderson for 2 years. Running has meant different
things to me at different times in my life, but one thing is for sure.....running
has always been there for me, and has helped shape the person I am
today. I feel that mentoring and training high school students as
they give running a try is an important mission in my life. I cannot wait
to see how Season 7 unfolds, and all the amazing memories we create for our
teens!
Running
has meant different things to me at different times in my life, but one thing
is for sure........running has always been there for me, and has helped shape
the person I am today.
I
feel that mentoring and training high school students as they give running a
try is an important mission in my life. I cannot wait to see how Season 7
unfolds, and all the amazing memories we create for our teens!
