What the App Doesn't Know...

I use the Map My Run app on my phone.  I have a love/hate relationship with it...I love it because its easy to track, distance, speed, time, calories, elevation and all that jazz.  I hate for the same reasons.  It tracks all that stuff so it pushes me farther, harder faster.

I recently started training for the Des Moines Marathon.  I know boring, right?!  I should have chosen a fun, big booming metropolis to run my first marathon.  But, I actually didn't chose to run this, per se.  I wrote an essay about why I should be chosen to have free training and got selected to train with a group of people and an awesome trainer.  FOR FREE!!!  I don't remember what I wrote but I do remember I typed it one-handed sitting on the back deck nursing and watching you older kids play in the pool. As soon as I submitted it, I had a chilling feeling I was in, and I was right :)

I am doing this because I have been someone else's body for the past 6 1/2 years...pregnant, nursing, pregnant...over and over, non-stop.  I'm still nursing!  Anyway, I needed my own goal for own well-being.  And in turn this will probably benefit you all and Daddy.  I love to run, LOVE to run.  So I am LOVING practicing getting faster and going farther at the same fast pace.

Some days take a little motivation and some days are rougher than others, but the little "man" in the "Map My Run" app still calculates the miles and the time.

HOWEVER, what he doesn't know (particularly this week) is that some nights I am up with a fussy baby, or toddler nightmares most of the night.

Some runs my ankles are bloody and raw because I was an idiot and ran 13 miles in my new shoes without breaking them in last weekend.

Some runs I am pushing a running stroller at 6:00 am with a baby that would not go back to sleep, yet she somehow goes right back to sleep 5 minutes into the run.

Some runs (like today)  I have a paid babysitter  come over at 5:30 am to go run for a couple hours because Daddy is traveling and I am determined to NEVER miss a run or any part of one.  Thats right, pay someone to come over here and sleep while you are all sleeping just in case one of you should wake up.  Trust me, I have thought about just taking the baby and leaving the rest at home peacefully sleeping and they would probably never know I was gone...but in reality it would be that one time.

The little app man doesn't know any of that, and doesn't take any of that into consideration.  He still just keeps the miles, the pace, the elevation.  Because he can't make any alterations to any of those things...they are what they are no matter how hard the morning was or the night before.  And its the same for everyone.  We all have a reason not to do it.  But I no longer have a reason not to do it, from now on its just one foot in front of the other over and over again.  It feels so good to love to run again, instead of just loving to get it over with and get on with the day.

I hope you all find a sport/ physical activity that you can always love doing  and that each of you will always love to push yourself  while doing it!

Love,

Mommy