This past weekend we went to watch my amazing sister-in-law run her first half marathon in Des Moines. It was inspiring. She worked her tail off to train for it and that included getting up at 4 am on Saturday mornings to run with a running group. The only things that I do at four in the morning are either get up to go to the bathroom or curse my 14 month old son’s name if he needs some rocking back to sleep. How she found the motivation to get up, get dressed and then exercise is beyond me.
I stood at that race, drinking my fully fat chai tea and eating a piece of butter-filled pound cake, and cheered the runners on until my voice cracked. My four-year old daughter cheered, “Keep It Up” and I loved watching the runners faces smile when they heard her adorable voice cheering them on. We stood there, as a big family, and cheered on one of our own – just as we had done for my husband when he ran the triathlon earlier this year. And I stopped and thought about how they cheer me on. I don’t run races, or bike until my legs fall off. I write. And every day my family reads it. I feel like I’m the winner of a huge race each time a piece of mine is published. It feels good. It feels like I put myself out there and people are saying “Keep It Up” to me.
Except, I get to do it while eating donuts and drinking wine…
