So, the Gruene 10K has come and gone. Let's talk about motivation.

Lots of things happening since May.

I had a pretty ridiculous bout with back injuries (injured one side... then the other, that was fun).

Then, as it often does, it got really hot in Houston.  REALLY hot.  So hot that when you got up way before the sun to exercise, it was still ridiculously hot and crazy.  I lost the oomph, didn't do much in the way of running, got discouraged.

Then it got busy with my daughter having all kinds of needs for me to run her around throughout the day and evenings, which left me exhausted and feeling very "NO" about extra activities.  She did try out for volleyball, though, which got us both up and running for a little while.  She needed to get a little conditioning under her belt, because she hadn't been able to attend the conditioning camps that a lot of the other girls had been to (she had a super-travelin' summer).  I was pretty proud of her for having the drive, at age 14, to get up before the sun to go running with her big old slow stepmom.  She was able to run that mile during volleyball tryouts in plenty of time : )

Then school started.  Both kids in a new school (one high school, one middle school).  New carpool routines, new schools, and again... exhausting.  I think I worked out consistently for a good week!  Then I came up with the "too much to do" excuses.

Then my grandma took ill and died.  It bears repeating that I really, really loved my grandma... and the fact that she suddenly wasn't going to be with us was personally devastating to me, even though she was 90 and I know she was ready to go.

Then I got sick, like sinuses-really-bad-cold, can't-stop-coughing, i-don't-effing-CARE sick.  Lingering cough for WEEKS.  So sick in fact, that I even had to reschedule some work stuff due to illness, which I am not fond of doing.  I don't make money when I don't work, so let's just say, I like to work.

Then I got a notice in the mail from my insurance company that they will indeed NOT cover a breast reduction for this Chesty Pear.  *facepalm*

When you reach the point of "I don't care" so much that you're not cooking even one meal a day, and you just want food to magically appear, and you want to get out of the house at dinner time because you've been hanging out all day staring at the same four walls (when you weren't sleeping, that is)... or stress is making you hungry for all the wrong things... or you just flat out aren't making time for yourself to incorporate any sort of exercise...

Sometimes you just need a little something to whack you on the head and tell you to snap out of it and realize that these are the same problems lots of people face on a daily basis when it comes to motivation.  You know what they say about excuses...

The Gruene 10K was coming up, and I was really just thinking about ditching it because I haven't been running at all, and was pretty much feeling like a big-fat-blob, and still coughing like a bandit and pretty much sucking on cough drops 24/7.  Well go figure, I had gone ahead and scheduled work in Gruene-- and it really couldn't be rescheduled.  I headed up there, checked into my hotel, and wasn't planning to even try that 10K because 6 miles is FAR, and I had just not been breathing well at all.

My sweet friends Emily, Daniel and Roberta were coming to the Gruene 10K as well.  I went on Friday evening and picked up my racer packet, and decided I'd try.  Even if I walked the whole thing, I should try.  Emily & Daniel would be walking, so I knew that at least I could hang with them if I needed to.

I walked with Emily and Daniel a little, then my legs just wanted to run, dammit.

I alternated walking and jogging for the remainder of the race, and finished it without a hitch.  My left foot was asleep for most of the third mile, but the feeling came back eventually ; )

It was inspiring to see people much heavier than me, much older than me... passing me by, or way ahead of me on their way back from the turnaround.  Toward the end of mile 4 or 5, when I was definitely on the home stretch, I turned off of Albert Street in a little neighborhood.  Like a beacon of hope for tired legs, there was a street sign.

Josephine Street.  What are the odds?  Of all the things a street could be called...

That was my grandmother's name.  It was like she was cheering me on from Heaven.  I cried a little and decided I would run all of Josephine street : )