If anyone out there ever needs some inspiration I know exactly where you can go.  This weekend I watch my wife along with a hundreds of other complete the 60km walk that is the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. This is the second year out of the last 3 that my wife has completed this event.  (She took last year off as she was a week overdue with our second child…..lame excuse I know 🙂 )

Watching this event is quite the experience. Much like a race you see people of all ages, abilities and fitness levels.  Today I saw my wife finish, 1 year after having our daughter.  I saw a Women with her daughter and granddaughter (The grandmother was 81 years old!!), a women who was due to have her 4^th baby in 2 weeks, no that is not a typo, and many others who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference, take some initiative and raise some serious money for cancer.  (In case you were wondering everyone who walks in the race has to raise at least $2000.)  For others there were different reasons for taking part in the event. Two that I can think of really stand out. 

First off there is the guy who was the last to cross the line today.  Not because he was the slowest but because he has become the unofficial face of the event. This guy (not sure of his name) has taken part in 30 of these events all across the country.  Think about that for a second, he has raised over $2000 for each of these events and travelled, I assume on his own dollar to walk the 60km in each of the cities that host the event in Canada.  Today he walked across the finish line last holding a pair of shoes that from what I heard from my wife, belonged to a woman that has completed the walk before but recently within the last year passed away from breast cancer.  I almost cried when I saw that but not quite.

The second group that stood out was the survivors. These are women who have battled cancer, won, and have found it in themselves to do something about it!  I am not sure how many of them took part this weekend but they sure looked great in their pink survivor shirts!  (Again, tears were close but I managed to not cry.)  And talk about inspiration! How can you even think about complaining that it is too cold, hot or rainy to go out for a run when there are people out there with the determination that these survivors have?

Overall it was a very motivating weekend for me one which I will remember and use during my training. 

It was a weekend that also made me very proud of my wife for completing this event for the second time. An event which I know is very close to her heart.  Seeing my son hand her a small bouquet of roses on the finishing mat was pretty amazing. (In case you didn’t notice Andrea, I had my sunglasses on when you were finishing even though it was cloudy out.)   Did I shed a tear or two…..maybe but I’m good with that. 🙂

Martina Navatrilova made the news recently.  She has said that tennis players who grunt are cheating.  It has something to do with the grunting drowning out the sound of the tennis ball hitting the raquet.  The really good players can tell from the sound how fast the ball is travelling and all kinds of other really useful information.

I was daydreaming that  since I  make a lot of noise when I run that I might be sanctioned by the governing body of running.  I imagine that I have been summoned to appear before the judges to face charges of excessive noise making.

Judge Number One would look over his special anti-glare runners sunglasses at me.  “Terri,” he would say, “Your crime is making too much noise when you run.  What say you?”

Judge Number Two would glance up from the most recent copy of iRun magazine – the issue announcing the winner of the blogging Idol Contest and say “Terri, your fellow runners say they can’t even hear themselves think when you are running.  What do you say?”

Thankfully  there is no governing body of running – I think. 

I really try to be light on my feet when I run.  It just isn’t working out that way.  But no one isn’t going to run with me because I make noise when I run.   I have been accused of taking steps that are too small however.  Oh and when I swing my arms I look like a wood cutter.

I admit I’m not the most attractive runner, but  am I ever having a lot of fun!!  And isn’t that what its all about?  Doing something that stopped being work a long time ago?

Imitation is the sincerist form of flattery.  That’s what my Mom said.  I guess she hasn’t had fellow runners doing an imitation of you inspiring other runners while you are standing there.  My copycat got the biggest laugh from me.  If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

I made it to the Den tonight.   As always, I stayed behind to help Esther with the beginners.   I have figured out what motivates her – or at least I think I figured it out.

Esther told the beginners that we were going to do something a little different today.  Something that she promised them they would all love.  Kind of like hills, but that is a whole other story.  Today they were going to practice fartleks.  Some of the beginners looked at each other and mouthed, “a what?”

And off we all went to do fartleks.  On the way there, Esther explained what she wanted me to do.  Run and try to count to 30 without fainting.  Actually it was as easy as it sounds.  We ran for 30 seconds a bit faster than our normal pace.  Then walked for about 45 seconds.

We all managed to make it through to the first half of the run.   Esther asked if I could ensure that I ran at the back and make sure that we all stayed together as a group.  Unfortunately, my little group got separated from the main group. 

We were slower than the first group, but we had a great time and made it back in one piece.  You know you have arrived when you get made fun of along the way!!!  I think I’ll have to work out an even better imitation of myself for the next run.

But what made it even more thrilling and hence the reason for understanding Esther’s motivation,  as we stretched and made plans for Thursday, one by one my little group thanked me for the encouragement on our way back.  Pshaw I said humbly.