How
awesomely inspiring is this photo of my aunt and her running buddies who placed
in the top three of their 70+ age group at their favorite annual 5K?
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My aunt (in the middle) with her 'golden girls' running buddies |
I’m so
lucky to have such inspirational women in my family, the most important and
obvious one being my mom.
Old fav photo of us in the ancient city of Ephesus, Turkey (she's also inspired my love of travel) |
For as long as I can remember, she has been involved
in some sort of exercise – most often tennis.
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Mom off to play tennis with our neighbor friend circa 1976 |
I can barely recall times when my mom would
talk negatively about her body when I was growing up, maybe because she never
really had much to complain about.
Regardless, I feel like I’ve been given this gift of not being as preoccupied
with how I look as much as with how healthy I am. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no saint; I want to fit
into nice jeans and I certainly went through periods of loooow self esteem: the most notable
times being the late puberty years and those lovely postpartum months. But, it’s not been a nagging pervasive thing
that I know a lot of women can suffer from.
I just hope I can instill this same self-acceptance in my kids,
especially my daughter.
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I’m sure
that there are a lot of people who think of the constantly exercising stay at
home mom as the narcissistic type, but that is so very, very far from the
truth. I run because of how it makes me
feel – healthy, sane, and strong. These
are handy when dealing with two kids under five years of age! One of the (many) things I love about race day
is the ubiquitous kids dashes that give my kids the same sense of
accomplishment that I get when crossing a finish line and meeting the goals I’ve
set for myself. Hopefully they will carry
memories of watching me do just that as they go through life. Or better yet, I hope that my running keeps
me around long enough for them to watch me win my 70+ age group.
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