So, my goal of putting my thoughts down on [virtual] paper is to allow others to find inspiration, humor, and encouragement in my experiences. In recent months I have gained an immeasurable amount of inspiration from reading blogs of other "mother runners". Seeing their workouts, their goals, their accomplishments, and their failures has encouraged me to set high expectations of myself, set lofty goals, and have confidence in reaching for them. In the most basic sense, it makes me feel less alone in pursuit of my goals.
I'm not sure if I speak for everyone, but my experience has been that as a runner, I get a lot of kudos in daily life in the form of "wow, I don't know how you run X miles, I could never do that", etc. I think for a long time I have craved support from people who "get" it, and to have reciprocal conversations about training for races, long runs, specific workouts, fuel and hydration...the list goes on. Luckily I have my faithful running partner, the The One And Only Shannon Steele. She guided me through training for my first marathon following the births of our second children within a day of each other. We have weathered the storms of our third pregnancies together, and coming up on the three year anniversary of our "running partnership". Lol. Crazy.
But outside of Ms. Steele's understanding of the commitment it takes to run and race, and at the same time be a mom, wife, and full-time employee, there are not many others around me that get it; I mean TRULY get it. I want to share my experiences with anyone out there who wants to read them in hopes of showing that it IS possible to be a mom. and a wife. and work full time. and run. marathons. I want to give back what I have gained from the virtual world of moms who run.
