Tears and tears

I'm a little amazed at the high number of injuries our outdoor training clients have. Maybe it's an across the board thing and what I'm seeing is concentrated, but damn, people hurt themselves more than me! I have to clarify, it's not just when they're training. Back injuries from work, rolled ankles from lord knows what, hamstring tears (that happened on my watch last night and I felt awful about it), shoulder injuries, calf strains.... Or you have nights like tonight, where everyone works hard and it all comes together. Tonight was good.

But there were almost tears afterwards. I've been doing strength training with one of the clients for a practical assessment I have to do for school. Tonight was our last night and I know she was disappointed that it was going to end. For contract reasons, my trainer and I are not allowed to take the group class clients as personal paying clients. She wants the extra training so she can lose weight and have a baby. She's also decided she wants to do a 10km run in 16 weeks. We told her tonight she could continue her sessions with me twice a week, for no payment. I'll be doing it in my own time, before the group sessions. I thought she was going to cry when I told her. I thought if she cried, I would have cried and I'm glad she didn't. Really, I don't care if she doesn't pay me. For an hour of my time each week, I'm helping to give someone a better life. That's pretty cool to me and if she does that run in 16 weeks, that will be payment enough. To be honest, her smile was enough.