Sunday, August 02, 2009

In Awe and Inspired!

I sit here knitting and watching the Atlanta IronGirl competition on TV with tears fill my eyes and joy in my heart for the courageous stories that are being told about several of these ladies. There were professional triathletes involved and MANY-MANY ordinary ladies each with a story, though they only told a select few...and boy were they emotionally moving to hear.

This is just TOO awesome to not post...**taken from the Iron Girl website**

Iron Girl's mission is to empower women toward a healthy lifestyle.
Grace, also the name of the symbol used within the Iron Girl logo, is within us all.
It's what makes women heroic, charming and limitless. Grace is with us in difficult times and happy times, silly times and sad times. Grace is with us physically, mentally and emotionally.
Grace is what makes us special, unique and strong. Grace acts with truth, beauty and spirit.
Grace is within you and you are Grace.

I had really hoped to find some of these ladies stories on the website...I'll keep looking but to give a few examples:
One young mother fighting cancer and living life to the fullest, another mother who was running for her son that's been battling leukemia (I started crying when he was cheering her on during her 5K run), another lady who has type 3 diabetes--simply amazing and then there were 3 women, 2 sisters and their mother, who challenged each other to enter this race. As I stated before I'm sure there are MANY-MANY more stories to be told.



I may be sitting here feeling like crap (Ole ToM is here to visit..but better this weekend than next) - as much as I've been telling myself I don't feel like it going for a run, I have no excuse not to go for a run knowing what these women can do.

I'm not saying that I'm going to go out and enter a triathlon, but then again you NEVER know...and I've learned to "never say never"! I'm simply sharing, yet again, some of my feelings about my new found fitness/hobby/mindset! Next Saturday is my anniversary race...and I'm so psyched.
I really don't know that I've told you all this before, but I was NOT, let me say that again...I was NOT an athlete in school. Far from it...I didn't hang with the popular, cool, athletic, brainiacs or the nerds. I was like one of the "misfit toys"--I simply didn't fit in anywhere. Running for me came as a way to find good health, fitness and lose weight. It all started with walking, then I started walking and running for a few steps and then I heard about the "Couch to 5K" program! I have a few friends who are giving it a try. I just hope they find the satisfaction I have found...and if they don't...well at least they gave it a shot and I'm SO proud of them for giving it their all. All you can do is try.

I can add one more reason to my post about "Why I Run"---because of GRACE!

Keep on Knittin' & Spinnin'!!

3 comments:

SissySees said...

Thank you for sharing that, Robin. I was a jock in school, and while I ran track and cross country, I don't know that I ever enjoyed RUNNING. (Tennis and rowing were another story...) However, I do miss walking with my dogs. Hopefully, I'll get the right harness for Gretchen this week (I think I'm going to try those vest-like padded ones for small dogs?), and we can begin walking again.

Dawn said...

A couple of my friends are starting the couch to 5k...I soooo want to do this because I love any kind of exercise...I just have horrible ankles...think I will still try it though or at least do it on my eliptical so I'm not pounding on my ankles. Love to swim...love it all!:) Take care!

Dani said...

Run Robin Run! You are an inspiration to me and to many other people!