Rays of Sunshine

What a lucky start to my week of training. Or shall I say a "blessed" start to the week after a very discouraging personal incident on Sunday (over $160 was stolen from me!).

So Sunday evening when looking ahead to my training run days, I saw that the forecast for the entire week called for rain! I had planned to start incorporating more morning runs this week too! It can pretty hard to motivate oneself to run outside in the rain (especially after having it pretty good after 2 solid months of training).

"How am I going to motivate myself?" I thought....on a day which the weather forecast showed a dark cloud with rain droplets and a prediction of 90% rain? (as you recall, all my training runs are outdoors because with my balance dysfunction. I am unable to run on a treadmill indoors.) So the task was definitely going to take a little extra "uph" to get me motivated.

Earlier in training when I was having a difficult time with runs (yet I completed them all!) I would think about the people I am doing it for. Then I further thought of the people who believed in me and that I shall honor them also for sharing their gift. The ultimate reason why I am doing this is to help provide a future for others inflicted with NF2 and to provide peace of mind to those loved ones and friends of those lost to NF2 that their plight has not been forgotten. Someone remembers what happened/can happen and is doing something about it.......helping to find a solution. Therefore, it is my responsibility to all who have supported me by getting out there and following through with what I have set out to do. I determined the moment another person made a donation, that no matter what the weather, I was going to get out there and run.

Well blessed day! My fellow cancer survivor friend Janet brought a ray of sunshine into my morning! And lo and behold, that 90% rain forecast was banished as the skies parted and the sun poured into the windows of the loft near my computer! I guess that was a definite sign to get out and do my 4 mile run.

Harley took the dogs for a walk along the trail while I ran. It was so beautiful out that I wore my sunglasses the entire time! What a gorgeous morning! It was so lovely that I greeting everyone I ran by on the trail with a "Good morning!" which further kept me going.

When I had returned, friends fellow endurance athlete Sandy and our dentist Dr. Lo added more rays of sunshine to the day which inspired me to do my 6 mile run yesterday. Unknown to me earlier, Sandy is actually from Eugene and will be running the marathon too although she is even more amazing and will be running the entire 26.1 miles!

Tuesday called for a 60% chance of rain and no sun. However, by late morning the skies again parted to reveal another gorgeous day setting me up for a fantastic 6 mile run. It was so nice to comfortably run 6 miles and not feel like it was going to kill me as it had when I attempted it last summer!

Upon my return, more dear friends had blessed my day (fellow cancer survivor and also TSNW member Sally and fellow NF2er Jennette down in Oregon).

Thank you all for adding your sunshine to my week and motivating me to complete 10 miles so far this week and to keep up the training! You are the shot of inspiration I needed! :o)

Also, thank you to my dear friend Skip who battles Leukemia and my friend Olivia (also a recent half marathon runner with NF2) for their support at the very beginning of my training. Last summer, while Skip was in the hospital enduring another harsh chemo treatment, he told me that he believed I could run 6 miles easy. I was not so sure but I did end up doing it. Yesterday I felt pretty good after running the 6 miles which was hard to imagine back then! Thank you Skip!