A great way to start

Indra

Alright, so today on the way home from school I was like "I am going to go for a ride when I get home." When I got home I finished my homework then decided to go on a run instead. I got dressed(In all pink mind you) and headed out to the barn. I think Erin and I have now proved that horses are great companions and transportation :-) I spent about five minutes catching Allegro then headed of at a good paced jog down the driveway. Allegro was trotting beside me and I was listening to an awesome song! I headed out of the driveway and crossed the road. The dogs had gotten distracted by something and had wondered off into the fields...A few minutes later they were running beside me. I didn't stop the whole run and after a mile- my stopping point I could barely breath I had been running so hard. Arriving home a little while later my pony jogging next to me, I knew it was the right decision to go on the run instead of the ride. in the beginning my plan had been to run the first mile then ride back home for the second mile. All in all I am very happy that I didn't choose to ride home, and ran the whole way. I feel great now and about two minutes after I finished the run I was feeling normal. This was a great first independent run and I plan to do one or two more in the upcoming week.

ahhh spring BOSTON MARATHON!

So spring is really here. Garden work is truly happening and ALL of the animals are shedding. Indra just finished her spring vacation week and is primed for summer. There was not a day this week that she was not on a horse. She and her friends were riding all week back and forth and all around the hill towns. She even managed to ride in Hopkinton at the mile marker of the Boston Marathon.

Some very good friends who grew up in Hopkinton invited us out for a play date to socialize and watch the Boston Marathon, and collect clothing from the race. This year was not my year for Boston due to injury but next year, next year, next year!!It was incredible to watch. We stood at the crest of the first uphill really in the race at the mile marker. The first crew to come were the folks who were seriously impaired. There were people walking with oxygen tanks, folks in wheelchairs only using their legs, people with prosthetic limbs. Then came team Hoyt and one other person pushing an adult in a jogging chair. Then came the wheelchairs! Flying at first. The folks in the lead make it look so effortless but it clearly is not, in the second wave of wheelchairs there were many people struggling mightily to make it up that first hill, rolling back a bit to make it up a bit. Next came the hand crank wheelchairs, amazing again. The came the ELITE WOMEN. Totally amazing to watch. Then came the elite men, then came waves and waves of every day people running and trying and succeeding, and finally chucking off massive amounts of clothes that we all harvested and stocked up on for running. Really it is amazing the mountains of clothes people throw off.

The marathon inspired Indra's friend to train more and we have set up a plan to work on getting her ready for a half marathon. She is motivated, strong, and enjoys running so i am excited. Let the fun begin!

it feels good to kick a**

As Silly as it may seem, those of you who know the power of the words spoken to me today will understand, it made my day. I was running up one of local mountains, hills to you west coast ladies, and as i was running up i met another woman doing a side step down in the snow. She looked great, athletic and strong. She looked at me shook her head and said,"You are hard core woman!" I smiled and said thanks. Maybe she knew that her simple words made my run 10 times easier and way more fun, maybe she didn't but i owe my early March attitude shift to her. I had been contemplating my lack of hard core-ness recently and wondering if i would ever see it again. Maybe i will never believe it entirely myself but having another woman athlete tell me just is excellent!

It feels good to kick ass! Why? I am not sure, i think there are myriad of different reasons for different people. For me currently i think it is validation that life is still long and bountiful. That i have so many more opportunities to do things with my body even though my children are growing up.

Today i was having tea with a dear friend and she was talking about having an emotional reaction to watching the olympics. Her reaction was based on her pre kids devotion to skiing and that she has not gotten on a mountain nearly enough and hasn't had a chance to tear it up in a long time. We immediately made plans to spirit away a few hours from work and children to ski our butts off. It changes everything that feeling of freedom and strength.

The pictures above are of Skinner Mountain in South Hadley, and me right after running up and down it. If you look a little to the left you will see the Summit house up there looking small. It was beautiful and completely quiet up there today.

Here is an invitation to anyone reading this to tell their transformational moment to me. I would love to hear them.

Larch Hill Race

She did it! Indra and i ran our first race together on Halloween morning. It was warm and misty and a rather perfect day to be romping around on the Larch Hill property in true steeplechase fashion. There was plenty of mud to had. The costumes were excellent and the company could not have been better. Indra paced herself well and we chatted and ran for the first mile after that she got a bit more quiet and quite frankly she was a bit hot. Come mile three she was definitely parched and over dressed for the run, but she persevered and was rewarded with a great big cup of water at the end. There was plenty of food and fun to be had after the race. Indra went on to work at her school carnival for the rest of the morning and i think felt a great sense of accomplishment. I will let her tell her story later.

Unfortunately right now Indra has a rather enormous infection in her foot that we are all baffled by. She is lying in bed fighting a bit of a fever and trying to stay home and off of IV antibiotics. Let's hope she can do it.

and so we begin

My daughter and i have decided to start this blog as part of a resolution to run a marathon together. The idea came about after i finished the Hartford Marathon. We want to spend time together. Be powerful, have fun, and to put it simply...we want to run like girls.

TANYA:First let me tell you about my girl. She is 11 years old, smart, funny, spunky, and very strong. She is an athlete but running is fairly new to her. Indra rides horses and plays like a girl. And just to make it clear that means she kicks butt! I am going to let her tell you about me.

INDRA:My mom Tanya is 36 and just ran the Hartford marathon. She is fun, funny, talkative and like me, she likes to play like a girl! Tanya loves to run and has running since she was 12 years old. We both love animals and one of our dog's favorite things to do is to go for a nice long run.

TANYA AND INDRA: We would like to encourage any mom and daughter teams out there to join us and run like girls. It is a great time to play together and talk and be outside.

We started today with our first fun run. Indra is hoping to run a 3 mile race in about 2 weeks. We set the pace at comfortable and got a feeling for how long running a mile together would take. It was cold today and windy. We ran the first 1/2 mile downhill and the second up. We calculated that the race should take Indra about a half hour and still be fun.