Lately I’ve found myself running.  I run at home, I run on the road and I run at the gym.  As a Mom to 2 little ones I find myself running a lot - but this is different.  I’ve been running on purpose - with a purpose.  I’ve joined Team in Training - a great program that raises money to help fund research to cure Leukemia and Lymphoma by training ordinary people like me to perform in endurance events and .  I’ve chosen to run a 1/2 marathon - other events include marathons, triathlons, century bike races and more.

The funny thing is that I used to run - in high school I ran Winter and Spring track - specializing in the sprints and hurdles.  The key word is sprints - I’ve never enjoyed running long distances and I’ve even been known to say that I won’t run more than a mile unless someone is chasing me.

Well - that is no longer true.  I’ve undertaken the Team in Training program for many reasons - I’m raising money to help cure Leukemia and Lymphoma, I’m training to do something that I’ve never done before and I’m showing my girls that exercise and fitness are important.

I struggle with teaching my kids many things - but teaching them that fitness is important and not just about weight loss is a big one.  Over the past few weeks my kids have been watching me run - Mommy running on the treadmill, Mommy running outside past the Y, Mommy pushing the stroller running…Mommy running A LOT!  While I was running today my daughter said that she liked running with me and wanted to do it again.  Then she asked if I would show her my muscles!

It was a great moment for me.  To me it meant that she liked being outside and doing an activity with me - but equally importantly - she liked doing something that required physical activity.

So, I’m doing Team in Training for a lot of reasons - teaching my girls that fitness is important and that Mommy is strong is just one - but it’s a really good one!

If you’d like to help me on my journey to raise funds to find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma - you can make a donation on my fundraising page. Thank you!

Tags: fitness, parenting, Team in Training

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 3:20 am and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.