Inspiration...

Tomorrow is the first day of my 12 week half marathon training. I haven't run since October and am dreading the discovery of how out of shape I am. I wanted a LONG break from running after my marathon. And now I've had it. And it's time to get back on the horse. Or the treadmill. Whatever. I'm actually chomping at the bit to start and am ready to get back into fighting shape. Not only am I training for the half marathon in May, but from my previous blog entry, I'm also running a 200 mile relay in June. Which means my long runs will be longer. In fact, training for the relay is almost as intense as training for a marathon. I like a good challenge, can you tell?

Anyway, I've been trying to get inspired for my training and discovered this:

 I love this motto. Short and simple: do what makes you happy. I watched an Oprah this morning about happiness and what makes us happy. The biggest takeaway was to choose experiences that make you happy, not things. Things cannot give anything back to us. However, the memories we have from the experiences in life can. To remind myself of my passion and those memories, I created an inspiration board (in my closet...now that we have kids there is little left to the house that is personal space):

 Hoping to add another few medals and bibs to this board this year: Mi.ni Marathon in May, Ra.gnar Relay in June and the Mo.nument Marathon in November (just signed up today).

I also made a shadow box with my Chicago Mar.athon bib, medal and finisher photo. Just need to keep inspired and reminded why I run...because I can. It's my passion, and I'm pretty sure I wear it.