Inspired by Others

It is about to be the beginning of a new decade for me, and I am grateful to have my health and beautiful family. I am inspired by the memory of my grandma and my mom to be my best self. My maternal grandma passed away in May of this year at the age of 89. We were supposed to be in upstate NY this weekend to celebrate her 90th with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. My grandma was strong, both mind and body, and I thought for sure she would out live us all. She took care of almost everyone in the family at one time or another and was a loving friend to all.

 

My grandma with my boys when they were 3 and 5. They love their great grandma, 'GG'.

Although we lived in different states, my grandma spent a lot of time at our house when I was growing up. My mom was diagnosed with cancer when I was 5. After being told she had a year to live, she fought for 11 years. My mom died at the age of 41 and even though it was a long battle, it was way too young to die. It seems even younger now that I am about to be 40 and my sister is 41. My mother was my rock. She was beautiful, strong, smart and the most positive person I have ever known.

 

Me (3), my mom and my sister (5). It was always funny to me that my mom was a brick wall for Halloween. I'm not sure her intentions, but as I look back, it was a symbol of her, solid and strong.

When I was brainstorming about my 40th year, I knew I wanted to do something that would bring me joy and physically challenge me at the same time. Running does that for me. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with it. I may not always want to run but I feel like my best self after I do. This challenge is a gift to myself - a gift of time to me and for me - to find the inner strength and positive energy to be my best self.

The idea behind the 40 races was inspired by several blogs, one of my favorites is Jenni's 52 Canvases in My 40th Year. Jenni Horne is a local artist, teacher, mother and multi-tasker extraordinaire. I bought a couple of her paintings a few years ago and love her work. Last year I had the pleasure of taking a painting class from her which was a lot of fun. As I watched her 40th year progress through her paintings and blog, the seed was planted for my challenge.

Another inspiring blog is 100 Days of Real Food. I love that a family of four pledged to do it together and are still going strong. It is not easy cutting out processed foods, especially with a busy schedule.

When we were vacationing with friends this summer in Kure Beach, a neighbor's son, Ben Shaw, surfed everyday for a year and raised money for Ocean Cure while doing so. You can read about his story here. He met his goal in May and when we were there in June he was still surfing daily. If I lived a block from the beach, I think I would want to surf everyday, too! My son is still trying to figure out a way to get us relocated to the beach.

Prologue: Glow-in-the-Dark 5K Dance Party

In preparation for my 40 races in my 40th year, I decided to do a prologue, and the Glow-in-the-Dark 5K Dance Party seemed like the perfect event! My dear friend and long time training buddy decided she would run it with me however she was limping prior to the race from a recent fall. We have both had three surgeries in the last two years and haven't run much since so we are quite the duo.

Dressed in black, we arrived at the race with plenty of time to get our numbers and our glow on. My friend was in no shape to run but she remained loyal, got a bag of ice and waited at the finish. Based on the crowd, I don't think middle aged mommas were the target demographic but I was excited to be there, a night on the town of sorts. When it was time for the race to start, we all lined up in a corral and waited.  I was decked out in glow-in-the-dark necklaces and ready to run. The start time came and went and we were still waiting in the corral, a lot of dancing, loud boom boom music and wave action but no sign of a start. Little did I know, despite the posted start time we were waiting for the sun to go down. Seriously...this was two days after the summer solstice and one of the longest days of the year! Between the loud music and late night start, I was trying to remain cool and blend in with the crowd but soon realized that at the end of the day, I would prefer to be winding down for the night than gearing up. The race finally started in waves and I was off. Since it was dark, I wasn't sure the exact course but soon discovered that we were snaking our way through the parking lot, through more corrals, much like a line at Disney World. We went around the surrounding streets of the Braves stadium and through more corrals in another parking lot to the finish line where there was a big glow-in-the-dark dance party.

This event was clearly more social than sport but was a fun and unique prologue for my year of races. One thing I learned for sure is that this mom prefers to run in the morning on fresh legs that haven't been chasing children all day. Night or day, trail or road, I can't wait to start my first of 40 in August.