Inspiration...lost

I ran Cross Country in High School only because I had too. It was either that or cheerleading and if you know me, I am NO cheerleader! The only part of Cross Country I enjoyed was flirting with the boy's team. At the end of the season my team had nicknamed me "Flirt". That was it, Cross Country was over and I never thought about running again.

17 years later, my Brother-In-Law inspired me to start running after he lost over 100 lbs running and eating right. He finished the Salt Lake City 1/2 Marathon in 2 1/2 hours. I thought if he could do it, I could do it. I only wanted to lose the 15 lbs still hanging around after I had my LAST baby.

So, I started running. One mile at a time. There was no time for walking. I perfected the "Mr. Richards shuffle". That's a technique my dad taught me when I was running cross country. It was named after a friend he ran with that ran at a slow pace. One month after I started running, I was up to 5 miles - 5 days a week. I lost 10 lbs and felt full of energy. I dreamt about running and talked about running all day long. If I missed a day running I would mentally beat myself up. I was obsessed! Apologies to all my facebook friends who dealt with all my lame running posts.

Then Vegas happened. I dove head first into Vegas and crashed! Vegas reminded me that I was 33 not 21. It has been almost 3 months since Vegas and I have not fully recovered. I lost the SPARK that inspired me to run. I run maybe 2 times a week. I also gained some of that weight back. Now that's depressing!

Here I am. Looking to be inspired again. But this time I am looking within myself for the motivation. That's where I'll find success. So, I came up with an idea to start a daily blog about my daily struggles and accomplishments. Hopefully I will find that SPARK within my words....