Motivation Monday – Finding my own

For this Monday’s post, I’ll bring it back to something personal:

My own motivation, which has been lacking as of late.

I signed up for Grandma’s Marathon. June 21st. I’m really excited about it, from a coaching standpoint. I have SO many athletes that are targeting that marathon in their “A” race. From sub-3 to BQs, there are BIG goals on the line at Grandma’s. I am SO excited to be up there to cheer everyone on!!!!

[Aside: anyone know of a house we could stay at or rent out as a team? Or know a college student that might have a vacant house we could rent?!?]

I have been wrestling with myself lately: you SHOULD want Grandma’s! OTQ! Craig and Jeff have registered and are excited to pace me to OTQ. Perfect opportunity!!! Wouldn’t it be fun to hug my athletes post-finish, sweaty and smelly, goals achieved?

But, have to say, I have “family” on the brain… 🙂 🙂 🙂

Oh, gosh, this was hard to disclose here… but it’s so true and I want to be totally honest here.

That makes it even harder to jump into something 100%, which I know I need to be if I’m going to run sub 2:43! AHHH, what a big mental change for me!!! 🙂 It’s amazing how a switch just is turned, and family all of a sudden feels like the absolute right thing, and the best thing!… vs. a year ago, I wanted nothing to do with it. Weird 🙂

I thought about leaving that desire out of this blog journey, but wanted to be real… plus, I think this is a journey that most elite athletes don’t really talk about…

That aside, I will still be up there for Grandma’s, but I can’t say that it is the “spark in my eye” that I’ve usually relied on (and is typical of me!). Is it because I’ve changed my priorities? Since I am not expecting yet, should I just plow through, train hard for Grandma’s and snag my OTQ? It’s a tough timeline/athletic journey that, like I said, is often left out of most journeys/stories…

Any advice on this from others?!? Wish I could just switch that portion of my brain “off”. 🙂 (well, maybe…)

BUT, leave it to my best friend, Craig, to know what is (or might be?) best for me:

He suggested a trail ULTRA: Afton 50k. At first, I thought he was just referring to our friend group, so I said: “That would be fun! Nate would do it, I’m sure! Jake as well!”

But then he quietly said, “Maybe YOU should do it?”

Oh, dear…. I’ve done the 25k before, “for fun”, and it is killer… 50k?? Perhaps I need new friends…

I hadn’t even considered it. I HATE trail running. I have done about 80 trail miles TOTAL during my entire life. I am slow. I was beat by a 16 year old in my last trail race (and I was TRYING!). I’m not a good hill runner. I’m not fast when I have to watch where my feet go.

BUT, it MAY just be crazy enough that it would spark that motivation in me. I sent an email to Chris with the idea. He hasn’t responded… mostly because I’m sure it’s a bad idea :). But I told him, perhaps I could pace my athletes at Grandma’s, then do the Afton 50k 2 weeks later?

Although, secretly hoping something bigger happens soon… but am happy to have something a little crazy that I’m sort of (hard to admit) excited about :). I think something crazy, new, something I know nothing about will be really good for me.

Oh, my…. 🙂