Motivation to Exercise...

....Something that's sometimes lacking from my morning routine lately.  Last year, with a beautiful wedding dress looming in my future, I was really motivated to get up most mornings (4-5 times a week at that point) to workout before work, as after work doesn't fit well with eating before 8:00p-which we don't want to do.  I would crawl out of bed around 5:45a, but by the time I was dressed, I was ready to go and really enjoyed the feeling of actually having accomplished something useful before 7:00a.  But with the arrival of The Lloyd and after convincing Mike to marry me, twice, and having the dress behind me, I have slowly lost motivation to don my running shoes and get moving each morning.  Not to blame it on Lloyd completely, but we spent the first 6 months with Lloyd waking us up any time he felt like after 4:00a, and even after he was walked, he didn't quieten down, EVER.  So we tried to have him sleep with us, that didn't help either.  So we ended up two tired individuals and motivation went out the window.  Fast forward to January, and Lloyd's "giant" 40lb frame has been dragging me downstairs and around the neighborhood multiple times a day, leading to what turned out be a pretty nasty back injury.  A No exercise allowed for two months kind of problem.  Which leads to here and now, just a couple of weeks after I watched the 26.2 with Donna Runners coming down the beach on the world's coldest morning in Florida....

I came home from the race and immediately defrosted in a hot bath called my Daddy and asked him to run a marathon with me!  He used to be a marathon runner and I needed help!  He politely declined my insane proposal (neither of us are really ready for a full marathon at this point) but we did agree to partner on a marathon relay team, letting us experience how running a marathon feels (for me at least, I have no idea and am very nervous about how the whole race thing feels/goes), without actually participating in the entire 26.2 miles of torture that is the marathon.  Relay teams have four legs, each leg running 5-7 miles, depending on the leg,  Daddy thinks his friend, Tony, would run it with us for fun too, so we just need one more runner to complete our team and we'll actually be ready to do it!  The idea of running 5-7 miles is a very manageable goal, one that we can all comfortably say we can do well.  For me, personally, I'm hoping that the relay will be my start in to training for a half and then, eventually, a full marathon one day (far, far away it feels right now).  I even found some information on a long distance marathon relay in Vermont, pretty awesome idea if 11 other people want to take on this challenge with me?!?!?!

So, after trying to talk my friends in to a half marathon last year and the Warrior Dash this year (absolutely something I want to do one day....please someone participate with me!!!), I'm really hoping that we can commit and execute this really great, fun thing!  Fingers crossed, we will be running in the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh http://cityofoaksmarathon.com/! 

The point of this blog: to find our fourth runner, of course!  So, who's ready to train for a 6 mile saunter around Raleigh in November?!  It's going to be great, you know you want to do it!!  Daddy and Tony are fantastic, and no one will be upset if you have a slower (or faster) mile time!!  Seriously though, I'd love to have a friend participate in this too, there has to be a reason so many people sign up, right?!  Let me know, November will be here before we know it!  :-) 

Injury free and motivated, I'm pumped to race with my Daddy and friends!  Check one of the bucket list!