My Motivation Board (yes, I saw it on Pinterest) and my medal rack. Is it cheesy? Yes. Does it work? Yes. I used something similar to motivate myself to lose weight. It is in my closet and I see it each morning when I go to get dressed for work and each night when I put on my pajamas. It has motivational quotes, autographed pictures of Meb and Lauren Fleshman, pictures of me and Carly at the finish line of races, an ad I ripped out of Runner’s World for the Disneyland Star Wars Half Marathon to help me remember why this is fun, and finally, my very own copy of Train Like a Mother Marathon training plan.

Train Like a Mother Marathon plan, Week 1, Day 1, Run 1 – an easy 3 miles with 4 acceleration gliders. Done. It was easy. It was fun (permission to run fewer miles than my regular run? Thank you, Dimity, I think I will enjoy this). But….the schedule gets ugly fast (yes, I put the happy face next to the finished runs):

Right there, in Week 6 it says “13 mile Long Run”. On Week 6, we’re already at my longest distance to date? Gulp. Well…

This week, it seems exciting and new. I love having a goal. Ask me in 7 weeks, when I have run farther than I have ever run, if this is still fun, and I might have a different answer! Thousands of other Badass Mother Runners have used this same plan and have crossed thousands of marathon finish lines and they all somehow found the time and the motivation to get it done. I will, too, with the help of Dimity (my coach), Alison (my fellow victim in 26Strong) and all of y’all!