A Running Mom

Photo Credit: http://iTwixie.com

This year has brought many incredible people into my life! This girl is a great example these kinds of people, and what they mean to me, my business and what the greater message should be to us all.

I met this girl at the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon One Mile Fun Run this year. iTwixie.com was a sponsor, so a team of us attended the event and offered all kids the chance to make friendship bracelets, compete for iTwixie t-shirts and Maddie Georgi cds (Maddie Georgi is the singer/songwriter of iTwixie’s theme song, “Go!”). After the kids finished the race, many stopped by to see what was going on at our booth.

This girl stopped by, hoola-hooped to win an iTwixie t-shirt, smiled for a few pictures and asked about iTwixie. I told her how iTwixie.com was the only site on the web that really is all about real tween girls like her, who are smart, savvy, athletic and curious about all kinds of stuff.

She and I had a great chat, because it turns out, she just started running last year and quickly learned that she was pretty fast. In fact, she kept running and now is one of the top ten fastest runners in her age group in the USA.

Pretty incredible, yes?

Isn’t she beautiful?

We’re celebrating our 1st birthday right now on iTwixie. We’ve met girls like this incredible runner all year long, who continue to amaze us with their incredible strength, positive attitude and real interest in reaching out to other girls like them. Companies around the globe are trying to teach these beautiful girls that they need make-up, sexy clothing and boys to know that they are beautiful.

At  iTwixie.com, we recognize the true beauty in each and every tween girl right now!  Whether she climbs trees, plays a sport, loves science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), literature, fashion, design, singing, acting, dressing up or dressing down, she is beautiful! Won’t you applaud your tween girl for being the real girl that she is today? Tell her she is smart, savvy, funny, cool, kooky, crazy, fun or courageous! And tell her all of those things make her beautiful!

Let’s stop pushing our girls away from embracing these incredible tween years! Let’s STOP encouraging them to wear make-up, pluck their eyebrows, wear skimpy clothing, worry about boys or what they look like! Let’s stop criticizing their “shape” at a time when their bodies are changing more rapidly than any other time in their lives! Let’s embrace them as the morphing beings they are! Won’t you simply embrace her as she is?

Let’s celebrate our tween girls and spark a revolution in this world to join us and cheer them on! Won’t you and your family join the iTwixie.com revolution?

One of the families that stopped by to talk to us at the Pittsburgh Kids Marathon One Mile Fun Run, shared their fun routine of running 1 mile, 3 times a week, together as a family. How fun! The kids were 5, 7 and 9. These kids, 2 girls and a little boy, looked at me, proud, steadfast as true champions, with medals hanging from their necks, a goody bag full of fun stuff, and an iTwixie t-shirt in their hands from winning one of the iTwixie challenges. Priceless, right? Better than taking them to a movie perhaps? Certainly better than hanging out at the mall all day or hitting a fast food joint, wouldn’t you agree?

It was a wonderful day!

The Pittsburgh Kids Marathon One Mile Fun Run is like many races throughout the world that bring families and kids together to celebrate family, fun and fitness. Won’t you find a race like it and run with your family soon? We’d love to hear about it!

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

Photo Credit: Ecnerwal

Tip 7: Make It Pretty!

Sound too fluffy? It’s true! Plan at least one a week that is pretty. You know, one that offers eye candy. Great inspiration. Views. Perhaps a place of sentimental value. You know why? Then the run all of a sudden becomes WORTH IT! You must plan, make extra time, consider options, perhaps discuss ideas about where you will run. Not every day. Just once a week. And shazam! You’ll find yourself hankering that run. Wishing it was Saturday so you could go on that run. You may even plan a run that’s just a little challenging… a-ha!  And then you’ll have to make sure that you’re ready for the upcoming run. So you’ll plan a couple of more challenging runs in preparation of the “pretty” one. I’m telling you, it’s powerful stuff.

One of my fave all-time runs is the Brooklyn Bridge. Just experiencing that fabulous moment of crossing over the Brooklyn Bridge and all of a sudden you can’t see the whole city any longer so it kind of feels like the city swallows you whole is absolutely envigorating. I just love it.

I recently had the chance to run the Brooklyn Bridge 3 times in a row. What a feeling! I’m ready to run the NYC Marathon again after all that fabulousness! LOL. But really, it was a great inspirational moment and it made me realize that those pretty, “eye candy” runs can tip the scale for getting me committed to a better running routine. Let it tip your scale, too.

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

Photo Credit: Cole24

Look at that.
Read this.
Then go for your interval run!

Confidence
You don’t always have to be in the lead…
If you have the heart to come from behind.
Don’t give up hope, don’t doubt yourself,
And a new strength is what you’ll find.
The spirit of competition, the desire to succeed
will always be important for life.
So give your all, everything you’ve got,
No matter the occasion, through pain and strife.
So step up to the plate, enter the race,
Never be afraid to take your turn.
Because winners are people who just never quit,
And this is a life lesson we all will learn.
©Melissa Underwood

May your next run be a good one.
Rebecca

Photo Credit: RBackowski

Ever commit to something that you’re just not sure how you’re going to achieve it? You know, you set your sights on a goal. You believe you can do it. You commit to it. And then you look around and realize, wow, you’ve got to start taking some steps to make that thing happen!

I’m in a bit of all that right now.

I’m running the Chicago Marathon in October. GASP! This isn’t a picture of me finishing, but I like it because I see that time as a highly motivating one for me. But just to be clear, I usually don’t like to talk about a goal like this. I won’t even say the words, “I’m training for a marathon” out loud (or in print) until the week of the race because you just never know what happens during training. But what I realized this week is that I’ve got to figure out how to take the time and start to train for it! Hello! The marathon is only 19 weeks away! Like a bucket of water over my head, it hit me: it’s TIME TO TRAIN!

So how ’bout we make a deal. I’ll set a few goals here and there and make some progress in getting ready for the race. You’ll share some inspirational goals and achievements of yours with me. And together, regardless of whether you’re training for a race, just starting back running again, getting back into shape, or are planning to run a marathon in the fall like me, we’ll achieve something together. Deal?

Here’s the beauty in this deal, though: Starting this week, we’ll never be as out of shape, tired, or full of “I’ll start tomorrow” as we have been before this day. Tomorrow it all begins. And we’ll do it!

I do believe in the power of community; the power of believing in each other; the power in looking beyond one’s self to reach a higher level of worth. So join me and let’s go!

May your next run be a good one.
Rebecca

Photo Credit: www.wickedrunningclub.com

I don’t know these people, but don’t they look like fun? They look like a bunch of friends who have run a few races together. They’re probably the kind of group of friends that gets together to run a couple of races a year. They email back ‘n forth their training schedules. They offer each other motivation to keep running. And they most likely have a blast when they run those races.

The NYRRC has a fabulous crowd of runners who get each other out all winter, spring summer, and fall, with a variety of races in all kinds of distances. You get a bunch of people to sign up and run a race together, meet up at a local, fun restaurant or pub afterwards, hang out and enjoy some good food, drinks and a bunch of giggles, and the whole thing becomes a fabulously fun time. I just love it. And I miss it, now that I’m not in NYC any more!

In my town, there are a couple of groups who get the races going and I’m now discovering a whole new world of friends who lace up their shoes on the weekends for a good run. Maybe I can get them to meet me and my fave person out for a celebratory snack, toast or beer. These people in this picture have inspired me to get out and make my next long run a really festive one. I can’t wait to deserve the celebration that will follow. Shall I try and run 9? Too soon to tell.

I’m up for some wicked good running, aren’t you? 

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

Photo Credit: thebullrunner.com

Check out these moms who ran the “Milkshake Marathon” — a fun run for breastfeeding. Can you imagine?Breastfeeding moms running a marathon? I’m sure that’s shocking to some. Not to me. After I had my first child, I felt determined to get back into running shape, so I trained for the NYC Marathon (with the doctor who delivered my baby, can you believe it?). I had my first child in June and ran the NYC marathon in November. It was a challenge, but it ended up really making me feel like I could accomplish anything. That’s pretty much the feeling at the finish of a big race you’ve trained to run, isn’t it? That race, for me, represented so much, because I was one of those moms who planned to go back to work, but when the time came to leave that baby, I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to be a working mom. But I just couldn’t leave that baby? See the irony there? More on that later.

I can still feel the incredible soreness of needing to nurse my daughter at the end of the race… I rarely went 8 hours during a day without nursing her, and by the time I made it back home to my 5-month old, I was bursting! True story.  

Photo Credit: www.meetup.com

Check out these women! They are new runners in Washington who trained together through meetup.com. Don’t they look like a fun group to run with? 

Photo Credit: catherinedrew.wordpress.com

And then there’s this woman, finishing a race with a huge smile. Don’t you love it? Best part of her story is that the smile isn’t because she finished. It’s because she spotted the photographer too late to strike her running pose! I simply love this pic and this story. How many times have you run a race and reviewed the pictures from it with dismay, as you see yourself either looking too comfortable or a tad weary!

At least in this shot she looks really happy! I’d take that!

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

Photo Credit: WPXI.com

With the enormous response in registrations for this year’s Pittsburgh Marathon, there’s likewise the enormous need for volunteers. So if you can’t run it, help out with it! Go to pittsburghmarathon.com for how to get involved! See you on the course!

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

Once in a while we get the chance to really touch another person in a very positive way. I’ll always cherish my experience of helping to coach for Girls On The Run (girlsontherun.org). This organization is simply wonderful. It does this magic trick with girls who aren’t necessarily destined to go to the Olympics running. It takes these ordinary girls, prepares them to run a 5K, and sneaks in a bunch of tiny lessons in the training sessions. The girls may not realize it, but they learn a lot more than they sign up to learn. And bonus, they compete in a 5K race at the end of the program! It’s simply wonderful.

When I helped coach, there was a little girl with a ton of running potential. But she was not a part of a bigger group of girls, like many of the other girls that year. So when she came to practice, she ran alone. She made a friend or two but didn’t really bond with them right away. Soon I found her running with me. At first I felt a bit concerned. But after a couple of weeks, I realized that her home life didn’t offer her many opportunities to have one-on-one time with an adult. So for her, it might be special to have me focussing all of my attention on her. I ran with all of the girls, of course. But I will say, I paid special attention to her. Let’s call her Addy.

As the final weeks went by, Addy’s running ability began to shine. She had a natural gait; a relaxed stride; long legs. Running came to her so naturally and easily, that soon she began to really outrun the other girls. But then she’d stop. So I’d catch her. I’d ask her what’s up? And then she started to smart talk. It took me by surprise.

Another week went by and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. I tried to hang near her and the other girls to figure it out, but nothing made sense. All of a sudden, this little girl who I thought I was really “reaching” was lashing out at me! Whaddup with that?

The second day of that next week, I caught the end of a conversation with Addy and another girl about a few things unrelated to running and I heard the kernal of truth: Addy wasn’t doing well in school. She was struggling. Her parents weren’t always their on time to pick her up. And the kids were teasing her. It made me absolutely crazy.

So, I started running with Addy again, but stayed with her longer. She made a few wise cracks, but I pretended to miss them. The other girls didn’t like how I focussed so much time with her. I still ran with everyone, but I purposefully tried to focus on Addy. And they could tell. I started to think hard about how I spoke to all of the girls to make sure they didn’t get angry with Addy. But I also wanted to keep Addy running. I wanted her to pass all of those other girls.

I stuck with Addy during some critical laps where she wanted to walk. I walked with her. She would regain her breath and I’d suggest we pass one of the girls in sight. And so we did. I laughed when she said that it wasn’t helping her to stop so much. I knew she was right, but didn’t expect her to figure that out!

With race day, one week away, the girls ran the whole distance. Addy told me she was certain that she wouldn’t make it. I told her I knew she wouldn’t make it if she kept thinking like that. And then I looked at her and reminded how hard she had worked. That this distance is actually the same distance that she ran the prior week. And that she was strong enough to make it. We smiled at each other. And she took off.

A couple of times I joined her to see if we could pass some of the other girls. She took off and left me in her dust! It was simply amazing to me. And yes, she beat that little tribe. 

We never spoke about the details of the teasing or her home life or about any specific issues she felt she needed help in addressing. So I cannot say that our running together created a whole new chapter in her life. 

But I can tell you that Addy gave me a huge hug at then end of the race. She said, with tears, that she really was going to miss me. And I said I’d miss her too. But I said, that both of us became stronger together and that I’d always remember that! And we laughed.

Girls On The Run Rocks! If you have a girl, or know one, check it out. She might just become a little stronger because of you!

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

girlsontherun.org

So check it out: if I can run about 15 miles/week, Hal Higdon has a training schedule that gets me running the Pittsburgh Marathon.

http://tinyurl.com/gmsne

Think I’m crazy?

May your next run be a good one.

Rebecca

I’m absolutely pumped about The Pittsburgh Marathon this year. Not sure if I’ll be able to run the whole thing, since my knee still bugs me, but I do know this: I am running that day in some way. And I cannot wait! It’s going to be such a thrill! Here’s why:

We’re all going to be celebrating the Marathon’s return to Pittsburgh. This city needs some attention paid to it for fitness. For the character of the city. The unique people. The neighborhoods. The culture. And at a time when marathons across the country keep popping up everywhere, it seems quite fitting for Pittsburgh to recognize the importance of keeping ours on the books.

Have you signed up yet?  Think you don’t have enough time to train?

I’ve always used the program mentioned here, and I’ve always enjoyed a comfortable, rewarding race. I don’t win. But I enjoy it. And I am not walking funny the next day because my training wasn’t robust enough.

Check it out:

Hal Higdon’s MARATHON TRAINING GUIDE.

May your next run be a good one. Happy New Year!

Rebecca