The CK Edit: Chicago, Change, and Coming Home❤️‍🔥

It’s race week - again. 🏃🏼‍♀️
And as she always seems to do, Taylor Swift has once again managed to encapsulate this season of my life with her newest album release.

In just a few days, I’ll toe the line at my second-ever World Major Marathon - this time in Chicago. A different course, a different city, but for the first time in my endurance journey, the same event. 

Last fall, everything about the New York Marathon was new to me - the taper nerves, the start-line chaos, the delicate balance of training with work and life. This fall, I’m returning to something familiar, but everything about my life is different.

I’m no longer in my 9–5.
I’ve moved home. I completed my first 70.3 Ironman.
And I started sharing my endurance journey with you all - something that began as a small outlet, but has evolved into a growing community I didn’t know I needed.

My endurance journey began as something that pulled me out of my routine, but has since become the one constant in my life. There’s comfort in experience this time around - in knowing how it feels to be completely immersed in a city’s current - hearing cheers rise and fall through every neighborhood, how a glimpse of your loved ones can keep you going when everything in you wants to quit, and that the finish line sneaks up faster than you think, while somehow still feeling miles away.

The anxiety is still there - it always is - but I’ve started to see it as proof of life. A reminder that I’m awake, present, and still choosing the things that scare me.

Since my 70.3 Ironman in July - despite the chaos of that day and its aftermath - I’ve missed triathlon training: the long bike rides, the open-water swims, the rhythm of juggling three sports - each with its own currency and demands. But that’s what I love about endurance - it’s always evolving. One season of life leads into another. You shift. You adapt. You grow. And I've already set my sights on my next 70.3 once I cross this next finish line.

This fall feels like a reset in every sense. I’ve been building something new - this site among them, a space to share everything my mom and I have learned (and are still learning) about endurance, training, and mindset. And with it, this newsletter: The CK Edit - a space to share my updates, reflections, and everything I'm learning along the way.

If you’re reading this, thank you for being here from the start and patiently waiting for this release. My 70.3 Ironman Training Plan is officially live along with a 4 week Pre-Base Build and the option to join The Train Payne membership - complete with members-only community access, Q&A sessions, bonus training content, and ongoing learning opportunities throughout the year. This will be a space for connection, questions, and collective growth.

Whether you’re racing, recovering, or just trying to figure out your next chapter, you belong here.

And now we know the life of a showgirl.✨

Here’s to Chicago. To Anxiety. And to Going Further, Together.

- CK❤️‍🔥