The "Mother" of all runs

Well tomorrow is Mother's Day and instead of sleeping in and getting breakfast in bed I will be undertaking the mother of all runs...we for me anyway.  Up to now my longest run was 12K and tomorrow I attempt 14K. Every week I go a little bit further or a little bit faster and I surprise myself about how much I can do.  A year ago I would have never thought I would run 10K and now I look to conquer 14...and soon 21.2K.

Thinking about it I guess running is a lot like being a mother.  They hand you a baby and you do not know what to do and everything is hard and a struggle but little by little it comes together. Each milestone, each passing stage, each year we struggle through and then it gets a little bit easier and we know what to do.  Every success they have is in fact a success for us, it shows us we did it right...or at least not too bad.

When we signed up for that first learn to run clinic we did not know what we were doing and we struggled through each week and at some stage it all came together.  Each new clinic was another stage to go through and we struggled through, finding our way until it all seemed to come together.  Each race we run celebrates our success, showing us we did it right...or at least not too bad.  We celebrate other runner success as well. we find more runners in our circle of friends and we form a support group to get us through each stage just like we do as new Moms.  We share advice, help each other through the tough parts and laugh and cry together.

I run with a group of amazing people at the Running Room, we all start off on Sunday morning with a smile on our face and end up at the same place, sometime later, still with a smile on our face, sore feet, tired legs but smiling through it all.

When I get tired tomorrow, as I know I will, I will think of my Mom, who was a single parent to 2 teenagers and a 2 year old and held it all together and my mother -in-law who raised 4 boys from a wheelchair.  These 2 women are the best role models I could have and tomorrow I will be running for them.

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” 
― Audrey Hepburn