My Best Run Ever

I've talked about it before, so you know I'm a crossfitter, which entails running.  I have never been a fast runner. (Why I ran on the distance team in track, I'll never know.  I think that's where they put the kids that joined the team, but were too slow to do sprint races.  Anyway!) In fact, when I first started doing crossfit, my trainer (who happens to be a SUPER runner) would include a lot of running as part of the workouts...and I would cry and whine about it--probably way more than any grown up should.  However, I kept coming and doing the workouts, and doing the running...and eventually, I looked up one day and thought, "Oh my gosh!  I can run longer than 400 meters without feeling sick and like my legs are lead and my lungs are going to explode.  What happened?"  

That's part of the beauty of crossfit.  We don't run at every workout.  In fact, because I only go 3 days a week (I'm doing karate on the other days), I often miss some of the running.  The beauty part comes in that the constant movement with lifting, squatting, dipping, whatever builds up your cardiovascular health, too.  Getting better at running without running?  Oh yeah.  That's what I'm talking about!  

So here's me: 

That's me in the pink bolder band and florescent pink shoes.  Notice the little cutie in the Young Life sweat shirt next to me?  That's my baby girl.  This was the spirit run at my kids' school yesterday.  In the past, I've gone and just cheered my kiddos on.  They appreciate it and seem to be glad I came, but it wasn't the same as running it with them.  

My girl asked me to run with her this time, so I did, because I could.  It wasn't a big ordeal to tell her that, yes, I can run the mile with you.  I just ran with her.  All the way, we ran.  She didn't walk at all. I don't honestly know our time, maybe around 10 minutes or so, but I don't really care about that.  It just mattered that I got to spend time with my spunky girl and being healthy and strong is part of that. I'm going to overlook my weird left hand (I can't change that.  I've tried and it just feels too weird.) I'm going to overlook my posture that is not as good as it could be.  What I'm going to focus on is that my girl and I are both smiling because we're together.  We're even on the same stride.  I love it.

I'm thankful my sweet friend, Lisa, snapped this pic of us.  I didn't see her taking the picture until after it was done.  What a blessing!  Running and selfie-ing are not easily done at the same time.  I was going to crop out our little friend in front of us, but decided not to for the simple reason that he is wearing the sign that my son made.  My little man's class theme for the run was Snow White and the 27 dwarves...he was Smirky (or Smerky, as he spelled it).  My man left us, and everyone else for that matter, in the dust, but passed on his sign before doing so.  He was the first to finish the mile!  

I'm extremely proud of both my kids for their run yesterday.  They both were amazing, for different reasons.  I'm proud of myself for making the decision 4 years ago to take care of myself, so I can live life with my kids instead of having to watch from the sidelines.

What fun or surprising benefit have you found from taking care of yourself?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

I must give a little shout out to Amanda over at A Time To Dance blog for inspiring me to look at these moments with my kids a little differently.  Love you, sweet friend!

As always, click on my graphics to run yourself right on over to my website and grab them for yourself.  Today's "run, baby, run" is a custom wording over the runner embellishment, designed in the MyDesign Suite.