Wow! This blog has been out of commission since, well, the birth of my first child. Now I have two little ones! My excuses are both good and bad: babies (good), too little time (thanks FB, pinterest, etsy), school (how can I manage my working life better?). Regardless of the time away, the blog has been calling to me again recently as I've had some realizations and have encountered some things that really need for me to have a writing outlet. While I'll mention a couple today, they all really deserve their own posts. They are huge topics that deserve to be fleshed out individually - not lumped together into one, "I'm back!" post.
For starters, last year, prior to becoming pregnant with baby number 2, AE, I had the realization that I really wanted to test out my ability to become a competitive runner. Now running has basically always been in my life - an old friend that I have always been able to call on to be there, in some manner, when I needed it to be. I used to be competitive in junior high and high school (and I was decent. I was recruited by a couple NCAA 2 and 3 schools), but I didn't take it seriously then. I did it more for the social aspect and never realized my true potential because I mentally wasn't in it. Then, as I said, last year struck and told me that if I ever wanted to test myself, this was the time. That I'm not getting younger and if I want to see if I can make a mark, then I need to do it now. I started amping up my mileage last summer, took a break in August for the start of school to promptly find out that I was pregnant with AE. In a nutshell, training competitively was on the back burner until now. There's a lot more to this story and thought process and to be honest, it will be a long work in progress.
The second motivator came through the cause/site, Every Mother Counts. As a woman, I am deeply passionate about women's rights issues, specifically when it comes to reproductive rights and care. I have been feeling helpless listening to the news lately on how women are treated like second-rate citizens here in the US, how men are legislating everything we do with our bodies, and how little support pregnant women and women with children have here in the US. I have found hope in Every Mother Counts. It is an organization that was started by Christy Turlington Burns (the former model) to help bring awareness of inequality of women's reproductive rights both here in the US and internationally. They are a grassroots effort at this point, slowly developing into, what I predict, a force to be reckoned with in bringing about a change both in the business world and politics. There are many other groups out there trying to do the same, but what makes me turn to EMC is that they are also passionate runners. For fundraising and publicity, they ran the 2011 NYC marathon sporting their logos. In fact, running has been a central theme in bringing awareness to their cause. What better combination could I find? A group that's passionate about running AND maternal health and rights? Sign me up!
So this is it - a couple of my motivators right now that are inspiring me to get back into writing about my running.
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