TIaRT: Big Up to Moms

This week's Runners Lounge Take It and Run Thursday topic is dedicated to a "running mom who inspires you, makes you laugh, kicks you in the butt when you need it, coaches you, runs with you, brings you water, or just simply runs."

I have a multifaceted approach to the topic...one, I would like to salute my own mom for being a great runner-support mom, while not actually running herself. Two, I would like to give thanks to some other runner moms I know who DO inspire me, daily. And three, I'm a running mom myself, and my Shorties are a big inspiration for that.

One: THANKS MA
Most everyone loves their mom, but I have to say that my mom really is the best. She is a great friend to me and has always supported every crazy idea I've had (and there have been some, I promise) with enthusiasm and genuine excitement. Though not that into sports herself, she saw how important they were to me as a youngster and shuttled to-and-fro for a ridiculous number of soccer practices/games, volleyball tournaments, Optimist basketball sessions, and (yes, shudder and guffaw) cheerileading camps.

When I started running for fun and exercise in high school, she would come and walk the track with me at they gym, or give me the time and space I needed to do so. Nowadays, she watches my Shorties so I can run, always asks how my training is going, and has volunteered to come visit and see me finish my first half-marathon. There is no one else I'd rather have cheering me on. She bought me my garmin, sends me links to helpful articles, and is my official supplier for the Shot Blocks I like that they dont' have near me but have at the running store near her house. In addition to all the overt support, she is an inspiration to me because she has a warm disposition, a generous heart, and a ton of inner strength.

Two: RUNNING SUPER MOMS
I know some amazing running moms. Nothing inspires me to keep going more than another mom (especially if she has more kids than me, runs faster/farther than me, and is in better shape than me) to keep going than those chicas. I thank and salute my personal friends who are running moms, all those moms out in my neighborhood with strollers, the super-moms in my running group (and there are some really amazing running mamas there), and of course all the RBMs out in blogland. It takes a lot of dedication, commitment, and guts (and patience, and lack of sleep, and sandwiches for dinner a little more often than you ought, and hella stroller arms...) to make time to run and train and balance it all as a mom so THANKS for continuing to inspire me!

Three: TO MINE OWNSELF BE TRUE
I run because I love it, and it makes me feel like "me" more than anything else in life. But I also run because I hope my runinng will someday be an inspiration for my own Shorties. If they have one memory of me, over everything else, I hope it's of me in my wedding dress, cause DAMN I looked good me running (though preferably not this particular day), because I'm at my best when I'm running. I hope I am still running at 85, and that they and their kids are running right along beside me.