I know. I never post anymore. With all of the voices out there, what could I possibly add?
A year ago, I was planning a wedding. It came and went, a very lovely day which I'm happy to be done with. My husband and I, we honeymooned in Victoria, B.C. We held hands everywhere we went. We ate seafood and drank tea and celebrated The Queen. We saw rainforests and beaches and fancy boats and blues singers, seals and porpoises and sea otters. We slept a whole lot, and we got a little running, hiking, and paddling in. It was a perfect way to make our union official.
Since then, it's back to normal: soccer practice and projects in the garage, work, grocery shopping, a little fun here and there. Learning how to parent two wonderful and wily boys. Life as a family. Divine.
And the running. Oh, the running. I decided to make 2016 my year of running, except now that I'm taking it more seriously (hello 30-mile weeks, almost three times more than in my casual-running days), I know that it's not going to be just a year of this. Sure, I'm a little burned out from my half marathon training (see you in Eugene on May 1!) and my first relay race after that (Reno-Tahoe Odyssey!), but I can't imagine scaling back now. What's the point of running fewer than 15 or 20 miles a week? I've been thinking about why I run, and I can't come up with anything besides: it gives me some purpose in life, and it feels good to move. But it feels so selfish to focus on my physical self-improvement. So, I'm setting goals each month, and if I meet them, I'm making a donation to an organization that fosters team-building and athletic achievement in non-traditional populations. Someday, I'd like to be a coach for Girls on the Run, but that will have to wait until my boys are grown. Which is happening so fast.
I feel like running has changed me. Mile by mile, immersing myself in what it means to be a runner. Listening to what other people feel it means to them. No longer being on my own has changed me, too. I want to join a team. A team of women working toward something together. It could be running, but it could be anything, as long as we're all passionate about it. Willing to put in the sweat together. To join our voices and add something to the world.
