How I became a "Tough Chik"

For decades my mother and grandmother have referred to themselves as "tough old birds".  It is an old southern saying that eluded to the mental and emotional strength rather than brawn and muscles.  When I was training for the San Francisco Marathon I called myself a tough old bird on a fateful call to my mother.  She replied "No, you are Tough Chick".  So, when I started my company, it was a no brainer that the name would be Tough Chik.  We are all Tough Chiks in our own way, it may be that you just ran your first 5K after a bout with cancer or that your are a single mother and still find the time to compete in your first triathlon.  I get a lot of folks asking me "What makes you a Tough Chik?"  It isn't the races under my belt or the hundreds of miles I have put on the bike.  It has nothing to do with the scars on arm from broken bones or how much I can squat.  It is all about what you can't see, the life I have lived and the obstacles I have conquered.  We all have a journey and story that has made us the person we are today, the warrior we have become.  If you want to see a Tough Chik, just look in the mirror.  This is what tough looks like.

xoxo,
Shannon
(the original tough chik)