My Journey...My Game...My Passion...

First, I am thrilled to share my story with everyone and thank you to Joan for inviting me to share my story as this is my first post. My running journey started quite a few years ago when I wanted to do something for myself and show people my accomplishment. It started on New Year’s Eve and my resolution to finish a 5k in late March (Cincinnati Heart Mini). I decided to share with people my resolution because I figured if I told people what I was doing, then one I would hopefully have their support and second I have admitted aloud. Next, I signed up for the race because then I was monetarily invested in the race. Needless to say I completed the race and I was thrilled. The following year I decided I wanted to rerun the Cincinnati Heart Mini 5k race and try to beat my time and did I smash my time by 6 minutes!

As my journey continues (a few years later)I lost some of the passion I had for running and did not know why. I realized I did not have a support group and I did not have a goal in mind. At this point I decided to venture out and run a marathon (I have no clue what I was thinking, but I was dreaming big). I signed up for the Chicago Marathon and it was rough! I trained on my own, I was in a city I did not know, and my wife cheered me on from a few locations (which was great)! My whole goal was to finish the race and I did (about 5 hours). When I finished I thought I would never do something that stupid again; however, the following week I wanted to go out and run and work on beating my time. I started to train again (on my own, but I told a lot of people what I was doing, and I read a lot of books about marathon training) for the Cincinnati Flying Pig in May. When race day arrived I wanted to go down to the start and run for me and have a blast. I did! I also beat my time by an hour! I found my passion once again…I loved letting my mind wonder! I was getting into the best shape of my life and I LOVED to run, it was a release of energy and stress! I have continued to run over the years and I just ran this past May the Cincinnati Marathon once again and I am now working on qualifying for the Boston Marathon, which is hard.

I have found I am inspired each and every day by everyone! Each person has a passion for what they are doing on the elliptical, walking, running, spinning, or whatever your game may be! I love it. Without the support and passion from everyone around goals cannot be met! #TEMT has opened a new door of motivation for me as I move into my journey of running…I love it (people all over the world/country inspiring me). I know my goal of qualifying for Boston is different from others, but every goal is important and meeting your goals is an accomplishment from walking a mile to running a marathon or a triathlon. I love the stories and look forward to motivating others as you all motivate me!

~Joe (@jrsteach)

You are Amazing TEMT!

I know, I seem to gush a lot but only when people really inspire and support each other. I am really excited that we are helping each other every day, cheering and giving positive boosts when it's hard to keep up the exercise routine.
This brief video ( because my educator account expired and I only had access to 30 seconds!) is just a little reminder of my appreciation for all of you! ( p.s. if you look away for even a second, you might miss the dolphin jump, so watch closely ;-) )



Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Don't Feel Like Working Out?

No excuses!

DailyMile

Over the past couple of months I've been using DailyMile to track my exercise efforts (running, walking).

While the initial look and feel frankly turned me off ("oh no, not another 'Facebookish' social silo...") I found the diarising features very handy. Whether you use it just for your personal tracking or as your full exercise motivational network is of course entirely up to you but I warmly recommend it.

Happy exercising!

Tomaz

Wiffiti

Motivation

Hi Everyone
I've so enjoyed reading what everyone has posted. Thank you Joan for inspiring us all to get more active this summer and recognize that it's important to take care of our bodies and our minds through exercise.

This is my first time posting. I'm excited because all of you motivate me everyday. I know in my head that exercise is important but I don't think it's a priority and I'm trying to change that, with all of your encouragement. I'm motivated by all of you, everyday. Yesterday, I watched many of you post the workouts or runs you did. I knew I needed to get out and do mine for the day but I also knew that it was a bit of a rest day as well. I've been really good all week about walking and working out on my Wii. The new shoes sure helped. The most I did was walk the dogs (they're dachshunds and don't go very fast). It was more of a stroll because it was hot. I didn't feel really great about what I did but it was something.

I was sure motivated today though. I was up, had my coffee and walked before my Elluminate Share-a-thon. Great ideas & resources were shared. Getting my heart rate up and actually sweating has been wonderful. I've got more energy and I'm wanting to do more. After the Elluminate I did my strength training on the Wii. I've been doing the beginner mode just to ease into again and today I felt like I hadn't done enough so tomorrow and stepping it up a notch. I'll be working on the intermediate level. Yay for me!!! I'm so proud of myself. But I've got to give everyone a be THANK YOU for motivating me with what you all do and post on Twitter.

Thank you #temt.

April

Isn't it great to be inspired by others...

I have finally taken the time to sit and read through everyone's thoughts! And there are so many things that have caused me to reflect even further... time for a post.

I love how Joan started this Team Blog as a way to reflect on living a healthier life. By reading everyone's posts, it really makes me think about the health of your body, mind and soul and how related those facets really are. That's what this is all about. It was great to read about (and visualize) Anna's run along the gorgeous scenery in Greece and also Kathy's walk with Angels at the cemetery - both very moving places to run and reflect on the goodness of each day.

What really made me think was Dean's question - What does it take? And the first thing that came to my mind about what it really takes to get me to keep at running is to "not compare myself with others". I've always wanted to be a runner. But I made the mistake of starting out, comparing myself to avid runners, and then giving up because I wasn't "perfect" (gasp!). I started a handful of times, compared my measly run to the 10K of others and then went back to just power-walking and yoga. I did this over and over. Until March. I started running again, but this time, I shared my struggles with a friend who is an avid runner. When I asked him how he can run and not compare himself to others he gave me the best advice. He said, "I run my own race." It made me think about doing what was right for me. So I started again. And I started keeping track of MY running each day. I ignored the people running by me. I didn't look at the runners that I crossed paths with. I learned to shut out the rest of the world when I run. I focus on ME. I taught myself how to run my own race.

Running for me is about my mental health. I feel better when I run. I sleep better when I run. It's about getting lost in my music and emptying my brain of all the nonsense that tries to creep in at times (my brothers call me Analyti-Kel). There was a picture in one of the posts with this quote - "Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between 2 deep breaths." That is so true to me. If you focus on your breathing, I mean REALLY focus, it brings you a step closer to awareness. I've tried to practice that in my runs. I'm not perfect, but I'm learning.

I loved the video that Shelley posted about "Running and Reading" - Will talked about that "voice that talks to you when you are running" - but he referred more to the voice that nags about how tired you are and how you need to defeat that little voice. I like to listen to the other voice that seems to talk to me through my music on my run. The little voice in my head (through my music) gives me inspiration, the voice that says I'm doing my best, the voice that tells me to keep going! When I'm listening to my music, on my run, it truly lifts my soul!

I've decided to print the Star Wordle and put it on my bedroom mirror. I've also decided that it's time I buy that fancy Nike shoe thing to help me keep motivated and track my progress. Those are my goals for now!

Thank you Joan, for bringing us together. I feel that this sharing will be an inspiration to me. I want you guys in #temt to call me on it every day! I look forward to the tweets: "Kelly have you run yet today?" Because I know myself. I need to be pushed.