Wife Mother Runner Blog - Wife Mother Runner

Life Is Short – Enjoy Every Day

July 21, 2014

I had a great weekend with my family! Most of the time we have the best weekends. I put in two great runs, we had our traditional Friday night family night, we had closing ceremonies for baseball, we volunteered at the shelter, we hit the ice cream store, we rode bikes, we went to a family birthday party for my 2-year-old great-niece and we did some much-needed work around our yard.

Most weekend are spent like this but I also heard some terrible news during the week about a young, 20-year old man who was running on Route 17 and was struck by a drunk driver and died in the hospital. He was on life support for a few days so that his father could get to the hospital to see him. It’s just tragic and inexcusable. Drunk driving, distracted driving, it’s all out there and it makes running even more dangerous for runners who have to use the main roads for training. I ran on the exact road that he was hit on.

Life is so very short for some. I am always reminded that we are not guaranteed tomorrow. I try to live every day to the fullest and to teach my family to enjoy the moment. My son has stomach aches on Sunday nights sometimes. I think it’s because he knows the weekend is ending and mom and dad have to go back to work; but we try to make every night fun, when we are done working. They also LOVE going to camp so there is still fun in their days.

The point of this post today is to just remind you that life is so precious, it can end in the blink of an eye. My brother-in-law’s girlfriend was made a widow at the age of 32 with her 3-year-old son. Her poor husband died instantly of a heart attack at a young age. Life may be a drag at times, work may not be what you want it to be, but make the times that you can the best times. Make memories. My phone is loaded up with photos constantly. I love to relive my weekends of photos and see how much fun we had. I want my kids to remember all the fun we make of our weekends and vacations.

Live, Love, Laugh!

Dopey Training Has Begun

July 20, 2014

I hadn’t planned on doing back to back runs this weekend but it happened and it was successful. I had planned an early wakeup for Saturday and assumed I would sleep late on Sunday. After my 5 mile run Saturday I decided I want a repeat performance the next day to put some calories in the bank, to be honest. We have a family party to go to today and I want to be able to enjoy some of Nana’s potato salad without the guilt.

I use the LoseIt app and already I am under budget!

I had a five mile run on the schedule from my coach, Jeff Galloway. It was a slower 5 mile run but I was pleased with it. When the alarm went off today I hopped out of bed, had a cup of tea and a piece of bread and headed out the door. My pace was pretty quick. After the first mile I was under 12 minutes. After my second mile I was still under 12 minutes. Then I put on some music and I really picked it up. Today’s run really gave me the confidence I need for the Dopey challenge.

I had been listening to podcasts about reaching your dreams and how you can be successful by envisioning yourself as successful. I had truly believe in that.

It’s My 3 year Runniversary!

July 19, 2014

Today is my three year anniversary of when I began running outdoors and changing my running habits from a treadmill workout to “running”.

I was on vacation with my family in New Hampshire and went for a walk which turned into a jog. The next day I could barely squat down to get into my beach chair. But then the day after that I did it again.

When I returned home to Connecticut that Saturday we unloaded the car and I had the itch to run again. I put on my shoes and clothes, despite having just travelled about 7 hours with the kids from New Hampshire to Connecticut. I didn’t run far. I remember it was just a mile but I loved it. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember I was getting a cold, too but I wasn’t going to let it stop me.

I decided to make it a daily routine every morning before I had to go to work. I was hooked. Three marathons later I am still going at it. I am in the middle of training for my fourth marathon and am also training for the 2015 Dopey challenge.

I have some dreams I am working on for a new idea in the coming weeks which involves my community in town. I hope it is successful. More details to come!

Running has opened so many doors for me. It is healing, I have met so many great people. I am growing. I feel proud. I am setting an example for my children. It has taught me so much and there is still so much more to learn. I never thought I would have an Olympian for a coach and I have Jeff Galloway as my coach.

I am grateful and thankful for my body and that I can run. It may not be pretty, it may not be fast, but I do it and I love it and will continue to do it until I can no longer walk!

Challenges You May Face While Making your Dreams Come True

July 18, 2014

Yesterday I talked about taking the first step towards achieving your dream. Today I want to talk about some of the issues that you might face while taking those steps. Many of us have dreams whether it be to start a new job, or to quit a job to start your own business, lose weight, run a race, change careers completely. Whatever your dream is, it is yours alone. No one can make that dream come true for you. You have to work for it on your own.

While you are working to pursue that dream you may come across some challenges. It’s how you deal with those challenges that are important for the success of your end result. You may feel some of the following things, but don’t let them overcome you:

– Uncomfortable – we tend to stay where we are because it is comfortable and we are familiar with everything involved.
– Scared – the fear of the what-ifs or the unknowns are very strong feelings to keep us from moving forward
– You’ll be tempted to stay with the familiar and safe place – In regards to work, job security is never a guarantee
– Doubt – Sometimes you will doubt yourself or someone will doubt you which makes you doubt yourself
– You can’t please everyone and your decision is yours alone. If people you care about makes you doubt your decision, it’s ok to continue on with what you want to do because ultimately it’s your life and your dream.

After you get over the negative feelings and hurdles you will begin to realize that your dream is something you are good at and that’s why it was your dream in the first place. You will begin to feel confident that you can do what you set out to do. You will realize who smart you really are. You will stand out on your own. If you are like me, I am listening to podcasts about dreamers and am seeing that other people are reaching their dreams and are going through many of the same experiences I am going through. You may begin to network with those people and it will help build your confidence. Those new acquaintances are good people to have on your side, especially when the doubt and fear begins to creep in. You can reach out to them to express your feelings and may learn that they too had the same feelings at one point when working towards their dreams.

Something that I am terrible at is being patient. During the times when you want to know what will happen if you do this or that, there are times where you may have to wait. Waiting isn’t easy! It gives your mind time to think and time to think brings in fear and doubt. You may want to run faster and get a better finish time, but you can’t get faster over night. You have to be patient and work up to that pace slowly in order to get faster. You are going to get hurt when you do too much too soon. Did you quit your job to go back to school? Well you don’t graduate overnight. It may be hard to get all the basics courses done before you even get to the core classes related to the major that you are working towards. Be patient. It will come.

The best things in life are worth waiting for. It took me a VERY long time to start my family, but now as I look back all of those years are a blur now. I am so busy and happy with my family and am so blessed by the life that I have and waited so long to have.

Have faith and believe in yourself that you will achieve your goals. If you have achieved your goal and are now living your dream you will feel light and happy. Your life will have a burning desire to get started and do what you love. Isn’t that worth waiting for and overcoming all of your hurdles to get to as the end result? I know that is what I want for my life. I know that while I have many miles ahead of me on my calendar for the training plan for Dopey, I am looking forward to checking those miles off and seeing the success of all of my hard work.

Don’t give up on your dreams because of the feelings that you may have listed above. Not to sound morbid, but the number one regret people have when on their death beds is that they were never brave enough to achieve their dreams. Don’t put things off, we are not promised tomorrow. The time is now.

First Step To Reaching Your Dream

July 17, 2014

I seem to be on a dream theme these days. I came across The Dreamers Podcast from Joe Pardo, which I had the pleasure to be a guest of on his show (coming soon); and also the Dream Warriors Podcast from Doc Kennedy and they have been very inspiring. Today 59 years ago, one man had a dream that he made come true even when no one believed in it – Disneyland was born. Walt is known for pursuing our dreams – “If you can dream it, you can do it”.

While listening to Doc’s podcasts today I got something out if it that I appreciated. In order for your dream to come true, you have to take the first step. What great advice, but sometimes that first step feels like you are walking off a cliff. It doesn’t have to. Try taking baby steps.

Your first steps can be:

– To sign up for a class
– Attend a seminar
– Get books about the subject you are interested in
– Listen to podcasts related to the topic

As you educate yourself in the field you are interested in you will gain confidence. Facing a new dream takes courage and risk. Sometimes the fear of the unknown is why our dreams never come true. Sometimes you need to give up things in order to achieve your goal. But if it is that important to you, the end result will mean more and you may have no regret for the things you gave up.

It could be as simple as this… you want to run your first 5K. So what would you have to give up to meet such a goal? Well, you may have to give up a little sleep on a Saturday morning in the summer so you can get out and run in the early morning hours when it is cooler. What’s more important to you, the sleep or working towards your first race finish?

Another road block towards reaching your dream is usually fear. You are afraid of the unknowns and the what ifs. If you let fear get in your way and paralyze you, you will never reach your dreams. For instance, if you were working toward that new finish line (a further distance or your first race) you need to think of what those fears are and talk yourself through them. What if I get hurt going further, what if I can’t finish, what if the weather is bad on race day. I’ve had many of those things actually happen to me during training and on race day, but you learn from it and it makes you a better achiever.

I came across this quote from Anaïs Nin which said:

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

Very powerful quote for me. Take your first steps. What have you got to lose? You may lose something, but what you will gain will be so much greater! I know I am so scared of the Dopey challenge this January, but when I cross the finish line on January 11, 2015 I am going to be so proud of my accomplishment! I also hope that during this process my children will see that I set my goal, worked hard for it and achieved it regardless of the fears and concerns that I faced during the way.

I am also afraid of my first sprint tri that I will be participating in on September 7. But I am making the effort to get in more swimming this summer and have to get back on the bike again (I have been lacking since May). But I will go for it. If I fail, I fail, but I will feel better for giving it a shot.

What is your dream or goal? What fears are holding you back from achieving them?

Disney Princess Half Marathon Adds The Castaway Cay Challenge

July 15, 2014

runDisney has a way of surprising us with new things. It’s great that they are adding new elements to their races. Earlier in the year the included a Castaway Cay Challenge to Marathon Weekend in January. This was discussed on a Mickey Miles Podcast that maybe now they will add this to all of the challenge races. Well, now they are adding it to the Princess Half Marathon weekend in January. I know that his had made some people upset because they registered for it for the January offering of the cruise. Registration for the Princess Weekend Race events will be opening on Tuesday, July 15 at 12:00 Noon ET to the public for the Princess Half Marathon weekend.

I think it is a nice addition. I just wish we knew what the race schedule was with everything provided at the beginning of the year so we can plan our funds, schedules and flights accordingly.

The Castaway Cay Challenge is:

Disney Cruise Line 4-night Bahamian Cruise February 23-27, 2015, following Disney Princess Half Marathon February 19-22, 2015
Disney Castaway Cay 5K February 25, 2015

Registration for the Castaway Cay Challenge opens July 22 at Noon ET!

Go to Disneycruise.com to book your February 23, 2015 cruise aboard the Disney Dream today, then register for the Castaway Cay Challenge on Active.com. Use the promotional code RUN at the time of booking your Disney Cruise Line vacation. Be sure to enter your Cruise reservation number when registering for the race.

There are some things you should know about this event:

** A reservation on the February 23, 2015 Disney Dream 4-Night Bahamian Cruise is required in order to participate. It is recommended that you register for your Disney cruise PRIOR to registering for the Castaway Cay Challenge. Cruise Line reservations must be booked by September 1, 2014 or your Challenge Reservation will be forfeited. If your Disney Castaway Cay Challenge spot is forfeited for any reason, the race fee is non-refundable. Please refer to DCL.com for cruise refund policies.

For more information please refer to the runDisney site.