Starting a business is madness. It's early onset madness. And the earlier it is, the fewer people there are to back you up - whether it's customers, investors, or staff. And thus there is an extra special place in my heart for Oiselle's early believers. Sarah "Mac" MacKay (now Robinson) was an early believer in me, and in the bird. I will be forever grateful for the crucial role she played in helping us gain altitude. Athlete, Marketing Director, Muse, Accomplice, we did it all. It's with best wishes that I see her depart the Haute Volée for new running and life adventures. We'll always have those early days. The memories...and the madness.
FROM MAC:
A question I didn’t know how to articulate until I heard it posed was "how do you decide when to keep pushing, and how to do decide it’s okay to stop?" In running it could be how to determine if skipping your run for a nap is giving in, or doing exactly what your body needs. I’ll likely spend the rest of my life posing and answering this question. The particulars will always be changing, and the answer will always be different. Sometimes I’ll choose right, and others wrong. Or maybe there is no right or wrong, only how we perceive it.
My heart has been telling me it might be time for a pivot in my running and racing trajectory. It’s a conversation I’ve had with myself, and I wish I could tell you all about it, and I wish I could say I have clear answers. All I know is it’s time to hang up my Haute Volée singlet.
I still have races on my calendar, I’m still training, I’m just softening my gaze on the days ahead. Allowing whatever story is ahead to be. The singlet was always more than a shirt, it reintroduced me to my competitive spirit, to fire I’d tried to bury, but most importantly those fibers threaded the miles between teammates who became friends who became sisters. It was a great honor to wear that singlet, and though I’m retiring it, I know that the best of what it gave me will always remain in my spirit.
