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.

TIaRT: Rugging...Blunning...Running & Blogging!

Well, in response to today's Runner's Lounge Take It and Run Thursday, I will attempt to share my tips for how I use my blog to help my running, how/why I started, what keeps me blogging and how I use it to keep me running.

As I said in my blogland-deflowering first post, I have been a runner for quite a long time: 15 years or so. At times, I ran more, at times less...sometimes faster, sometimes slower...sometimes I raced, sometimes I simply ran to get the stressballs out of my shoulders and minimize the liklihood that I would maim a coworker or wind up on the evening news after a fit of road rage. I ran to make it through pregnancy intact; I ran to get back to being "me" post-pregnancy. I ran to go on non-date dates with my not-yet husband. I ran to explore places I traveled. I ran to get some time by myself. I ran to think. I ran to escape. I ran to eat chocolate and pizza and drink wine whenever I liked, without physical repurcussion and cellulite.

So, when I decided this year (pushed over the edge by the very funny and inspiring bloggers I followed) to finally commit to running my first-ever half marathon and marathon, I knew I would need something more than just my own self and my spotty self-shame and derivation to keep me accountable. I'd been enjoying (lurking) others' running-and-life-related blogs for a while...and I knew that it was just the medium I needed to spew all the stuff that the hubs and non-running friends were tired of hearing me pontificate about (what do you mean when you say that you have no idea what the best training plan for a marathon is and you don't care to ever find out? When you say "running and talking about running makes you want to kill yourself" exactly what context do you mean that in?). I needed people that could actually provide guidance and resources and occasionally answers to questions...I needed an audience (real or imagined) of my own peeps. No, not that kind of peeps.

I use my blog to track my runs (easier than my old log notebook, which I seem to forget, lose quite often, and hey I sit in front of a computer all day anyway and I don't even know how to make plans without an electronic calendar appointment so blogging seems pretty ideal for me) and keep myself motivated. Imagining others are following my progress keeps me accountable and reading others stories keeps me excited. It is also nice to have a "free" space to spew any other garbage that comes into my head, running related or not. Plus, if you really know me, you'll see that I have quite an affection for running, and blogging about it justifies the whole relationship.

My advice to anyone considering starting a blog? Go for it. Blogging is easy and free, and if you have self-control and common sense, you'll only spend about 15 minutes a day on it. Of course if you have neither of those, you'll become like the rest of us (see blogs I follow, at right)....but you'll be in good company!