Sneakers and Wine

A few years ago when I began running longer distance races, I began to collect finisher medals.  At first, I tucked them away in my sock drawer.  Every morning when I went to get dressed, I’d see it sticking out from beneath my sock pile and think how proud I was of myself for finishing those races.  Eventually I began hanging them on a hook in my room behind my door.  Today, they hang in my kitchen from the curtain rod above my sink.  When I first began hanging them there, they hung on the ends, clustered together, unidentifiable, after the marathon, I wanted my marathon medal to stand out and then I hung them along the center of the rod.  My son recently asked me why I moved them there for everyone to see.  Honestly, the placement in the kitchen was more for me as it’s my first stop in the morning to fill my water bottle with my eyes still half closed and it’s my last stop at night as I push the program brew button on my coffee maker. I thought...

October 18, 2014 Before I truly begin I want to say thank you.   Thank you to those of you who read this blog and share it.   I started this blog almost a year ago, brimming over with ideas I hoped would inspire and give strength to others and maybe even make a little sense out of my own journey in the process.   I caution myself against getting too personal, putting too much out there or coming off as pretentious or arrogant.   But a friend and reader offered me some constructive criticism and said, “Write more often.” I shared with her my fears of being repetitive and sharing too much, “I want what I write to matter. It needs to mean something.”   “It does. Just write more.”   So it is in gratitude to all my readers that I continue on this journey with a new commitment to post more frequently than I have and continue to be as human and authentic in what I share in the hopes that it touches your heart. Pebbles and Rocks One of the reason...

October 11, 2014 This morning, I rolled out of bed questioning my decision to register for another half marathon earlier this year.   I looked out the window and it was cold and rainy.   I decided this race was going to suck.   I hadn’t run more than 6 miles since the last half marathon in June, but I had been consistently working out at my crossfit box and getting stronger.   But not having the confidence of those long training runs under my belt, I was very nervous about showing up at the starting line of this race.   My pre-race strategy was to stay dry and warm as long as possible which was solved for me because the city began closing roads thirty minutes earlier than indicated and race volunteers kept sending me to different locations down different roads to park until a kind police officer standing in the rain gave me permission to park for free in a no parking zone.    By this time, the start was only a half hour away, I stashed my ...