Who is your inspiration?

I am tagging onto my last post.  I love reading about inspirational people.... but honestly?  Most of them that get written about, I don't find my inspiration from.  Although those marathon winners, Olympic athletes, and race winners are amazing, they are out of my league.  So I want to spend some time talking about who I actually get my inspiration from.

Kara Goucher and Ryan Hall are amazing athletes.  But no matter how many Yasso 8
00's I do, I will never be considered fast like Bart Yasso.  So for me, these people don't really inspire me.  I respect what they can do, how hard they work, how fast they run.  But they don't inspire me to run.  That comes from the people that I know personally.

One example is a friend who I think has the mental toughness of a battleship.  She quite often uses her runs to work out the many difficulties that life is throwing at her.  She doesn't spend her time on her runs wallowing about how life isn't fair (and it isn't.... she has had to deal with more than what is "fair") but buckles down and lets her body work.

My coach and training partner both inspire me.   Both of them are two of the most upbeat people I know.  They make me laugh, they live their lives with no regrets, and they both have hearts the size of Texas.   They both have achieved great things athletically, but I find that is only part of the inspiration.

Me and my girl after her first half marathon.  And, yes, she beat me!

My last example are my daughters.  My middle one decided she wanted to run in 7th grade.  She started out running with me and barely being able to run 200 yards.  Just this past year, as a freshman in high school she completed her first half marathon.  Now, that?  That is inspiration.

There are so many other examples of people who inspire me.  For this purpose, I tried to limit it to those who inspire me to run, bike, and swim.  But I could go on and on with people around me who inspire me to be better.