2011

Women Run supports Girls on the Run Coastal Georgia. Using the power of running the program focuses on preteen girl character development and establishing a foundation for healthy living. Building the confidence of girls in their preteen years, Girls on the Run prepares girls for a life led with positive emotional, social, mental and physical development. Training to run and gaining life skills along the way, all helping the next generation start from a position of strength. Please check them out at www.girlsontherun-ga.org

Nothing sends a busy working mom into a frenzy faster than Christmas music on the radio the first week of November when her husband is out of town, she is running late for a meeting because her sitter was late, and she still needs to stop for gas!  While most women absolutely love Christmas music (I am a huge fan!), on this hectic day, after a hectic week, in a very hectic month – it  was the straw that broke the camels back.

Did we already eat turkey? Isn’t there still a carved pumpkin on my porch? The Christmas music conjures up the mental list: teacher gifts, mother-in-law visit, nieces and nephews, shopping, baking, parties, teacher gifts (did I already say that?) children’s wish lists, christmas plays, cookie swaps, holiday cards . . . ahhhhh!

So, Women who Run . . . I  implore you to embrace the only Holiday devoted to Thanking the people who help us run our busy lives! We have so much to be grateful for and we have so many people to thank that we need to learn to embrace Thanksgiving as a time to thank those who really make a difference in our lives. The teachers, the babysitters, the girlfriends, the neighbors, etc. Thanksgiving is such an over looked and undervalued Holiday. This should be the official Holiday for busy women. Keep it simple – a handwritten note, a gift of chocolate, a coupon for a night of babysitting for your girlfriend so she can go out with her husband. Think about it – half of your list will be taken care of, your effort will be appreciated and not overlooked in the chaos of the busy Holidays ahead.  Drop off your thank you gifts,  go for a run, eat your turkey dinner, take a nap . . . for the next day the Christmas Carols begin!

“Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a row boat with the tartar sauce in hand” . . . I love this quote for so many reasons. It is stuck to the  mirror in my bathroom and my 12 year old daughter has memorized it and uses it against me whenever I seem to waiver on issues. Confidence is the core that helps us make the right choices, allows us to “be bold”, encourages us to follow our dreams, tells us to listen to our intuition, and as I am always telling my children . . . “do the right thing, even when no one is watching”.

Women run in so many directions and juggle so many different things and it’s easy to fill our schedules with activities and committees and obligations. But sometimes we forget to be the strong confident girl we were when we were 10. We get bogged down by the should’s and have to’s. We want to keep up, give our children the best, take advantage of every opportunity, and that means working or running or juggling around the clock. STOP. THINK. Why are you running? What do you run for? Channel  the self confidence you had when you were  a young girl wearing those super cool purple track shorts and striped shirt. You were cool and confident . . . you knew what you wanted and you went after it. Maybe it was an A+ on a math test or an extra Ring Ding in your lunch box, but you tried your best and you asked for what you wanted. We want all Women who Run to have this confidence and we want and need you to instill this Self Confidence in the girls around you so they grow up knowing they too can go after Moby Dick with the tartar sauce in hand wearing purple track shorts!

Remember the day you announced you were getting married – you felt like such an adult. Such a grown up step – all the possibilities and the promise of a wonderful future. Along came the children.  Wow! Diapers, responsible for another person. Surely I was an adult now. Add a mortgage, tuition for school, braces and your own business. You are running around like a crazy lady doing it all, baking for school functions, volunteering your time on the Board, taking the children to all their activities, and working on your own business from the garage . . .  and then, then it happens. You get the call that your mother has fallen down the stairs. Everything stops. Fast forward . . . as you prepare the family room into a guest suite for your mother who is moving in while she recovers from a badly broken leg it hits you. Now I am an adult. I receive her with grace and open arms. She arrives with a wheel chair, a walker, a funky machine that moves her legs for hours on end, a small suitcase with a few clothes.

We are in a routine now, coffee comes first, morning exercises, lunch together on the deck in the warm sun (the joys of working from home!), the afternoon exercises. The children come home from school, join my mother for homework time, folding laundry, watching Jeopardy. Eating popcorn in her bed is ok because she’s a guest! Wine is served a little more frequently with dinner these days. We linger, we laugh, the kids are so engaging. I never thought becoming an adult was going to be so hard and so rewarding at the same time. I linger a little longer so I can tuck her into bed . . . “goodnight mom, sweet dreams”. Oh how Women Run in a full circle. I’ll keep running . . . and so should you!

The Pan Mass Challenge rides this weekend; funds raised go to support the Dana Farber Institute.

Read about one special team riding this weekend, the Bike HERoes:

In 2009, the Bike HERoes hit the road to raise money for cancer research by riding the PMC which benefits Dana Farber. The original team was Traci, Heather, and Trish – friends that worked together at J&J. For the many years we have been friends, we’ve run our careers, households, husbands, children, schoolwork and of course the occasional 5k. After close colleagues, friends and family were diagnosed with cancer – some losing their battles far too quickly, we decided we needed to take action. However, just weeks before the ride, Traci ran into some bad luck of her own – ovarian cancer.

Originally the surgery and cancer treatments left Traci too weak to run, so she got on her bike to ride. She set out to ride one block, but once on the road she felt pretty good and before she knew it, she was flying down the bike path near her house. People were annoyed and shouting for her to slow down! She felt totally free – a person without disease. Her recovery started from there and she was able to ride the 2009 PMC with energy to spare. Although she never really got rid of the cancer, Traci was able to get back into her routine of working and running daily. Two years later – years she credits to her care at the Dana Farber – she has reached the end of her journey. Instead of hoping she’ll be able to ride with us, we’re now praying that she’ll go quietly, quickly and willingly into her next adventure.

As Traci had noted, “Even though my motivation is different this year, it is equally powerful. I want to allow myself a chance to get on the ride that can certainly feel like a roller coaster. It is time for this so I can have some peace and comfort. I also need to make room for someone else to participate at no charge the way I have been able to, receiving treatments and tests entirely without charges. That’s the reason for this year’s significant change, and I sure hope that you will find it in your heart to support those coming right up behind me and in desperate need of the same resources at Dana Farber that I’ve been hoarding for so long now. New riders, new patients. Please don’t give up on us now at our most difficult transition yet.”

While we manage through Traci’s transition, we also welcome a couple “hims” to our team. Mark, Craig and Harrison will round out the team that hits the road on August 6th to ride from Wellesley to Bourne with the hopes of raising a ton of money to contribute to the fight against cancer as well as to honor our friend Traci. The PMC is the largest fundraising event in the country and every dollar we raise will go going directly to the Dana Farber – no admin fees here. We’re grateful for all the support we continue to receive – emotional, spiritual and financial.

If you’d like to learn more, please click on the links to our PMC page and our Facebook page.