Channeling Rainbow Brite

Fully involved in my training and preparing for the Pretty Muddy event in September and have decided to do a whole rainbow themed outfit. From the wild socks to flashy shorts and t-shirt, I should stand out well before the mud flies.

As you can likely tell, I’m a kid at heart and love color passionately… I believe that life is all about the color and we shouldn’t worry about coloring in the lines all the time. Sometimes it’s all about the living and experiencing. Too many years were spent staying within the lines and when cancer struck, I realized it was all for nothing. I had wasted most of my life, living by someone else’s standards of “good” and “grown up” and it was killing me.

It all changed over that year of treatment and in the years that have passed since it has snowballed to the point that I LOVE my way of living and thinking! My friends are real, my life is bigger and the colors are vivid! Also, I love to color and paint like a kid, again.

This is how we should all live, true to ourselves and channeling our own Rainbow Brite (or whatever you love). It shouldn’t take something like cancer to bring us to life… Live a beautiful life, run your races (Pretty Muddy is pretty awesome!), and be something more.

Joy is in the living.

“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.”  ~Kahlil Gibran

Becoming the Runner… Again

Becoming a runner or should I say, re-becoming a runner doesn’t get any easier with age and wow, I’m discovering this fact more and more everyday! It’s not that anything is harder on a physical level; it’s the mental and day to day stuff. When I did this ten years ago, the kids were younger and didn’t have a better and busier social life than I did. Yes, I had cancer, but that seemed to push me harder. There’s something about a doctor questioning my ability to continue something I love after surgery that makes me want to prove them wrong (and oh how I did!).

Now, I’m working full time, running my own business, as well as having four kids going every direction imaginable. Nothing is easy now and spare time is a rare and very limited quantity. I have five possible days a week to train for what is likely the biggest event of my life, so far, the Pretty Muddy Women’s Run in Columbus in September and eight months to pull it all together.

If you’ve never heard of such an event, it’s a mud run/obstacle course and like none of the similar events because it’s only open to women. Not something for the girl afraid of breaking a sweat or getting dirty, we will end up likely covered in mud, but having the time of our lives.

The event was started by a couple business men that felt that their wives deserved a little “me time” with their friends for all the hard work they did (yes, there are men that appreciate what we do). 😉 It has grown to an incredible event where girlfriends get together and have a great time. It’s more than a mud run, it’s an exciting women only event where women can cut loose and have fun!

For me, this is another one of those “Prove it to the world” events and want other survivors to see that even a gal with a gimpy knee can do fun and incredible things. Believe me, if I can do it, most of you can!

Over the coming months I’ll be sharing about the event and my progress getting ready for it. Hopefully, I may inspire others to take control of their health and remember not to allow anything (even cancer) hold you back.

Be well and have a wonderful week! 🙂

“A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.”  ~Author Unknown

A taste of what’s to come: