Monday Motivation: Full Circle Magical Moments

Monday Motivation, Inspiration, Female Runners, New York City Half Marathon Moments, Ode to #261Fearless.org

As I ran across the Manhattan Bridge, finally going faster than traffic on the other side of the road, a voice was reading from her book “Marathon Woman.” She said, “I trained every day running alongside the East River after work.” At that exact moment, I looked to my right at Mile 5 of the United Airlines New York City Half Marathon and saw the East River. It was a full-circle moment.

I met the one and only Kathrine V. Switzer in New York City in November 2015, invited down to join her, Edith Zuschmann, and 13 other women from around the globe as first advisors for the new global organization #261Fearless. The name was based on Kathrine’s bib number in the 1967 Boston Marathon where she was the first woman to officially register and run in it. Please check out this link if you don’t know who she is or her story.

The weekend Kathrine and I met was a few days away from the New York City Marathon, and some women were running in it. I was not. I was only a 2-mile-a-day runner and wondered why I was with this amazing group of female marathoners, one of them just returning from running the Antarctic marathon. It must have been my daily dedication to running and my Women’s Athletic Network ties that got me there – or fate.

As a group we ran the streets of NYC, through Central Park, down to the Morning Show, getting to know each other, waving at other famous runners, and creating a lasting bond that changed my life. After leaving NYC that weekend, I wondered if this amazing group of women would remain in my life and if I had changed. I did in fact change; when I ran with them and Kathrine in the 2017 Boston Marathon. My first-ever marathon two years after being inspired by my new running friends.

Yesterday I ran the NYC Half Marathon with one of those women Debra Halliday Mills, whom I met in November 2015, and have since run the Boston Half Marathon, the Women Can Marathon in England, the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon 5K, the 2017 Boston Marathon, and now the NYC Half Marathon, as if she was my running bestie for life, I thought how blessed my life has been since saying yes to Kathrine’s invitation to help #261Fearless that autumn day 8 years ago.

What made it a full circle moment for me was the fact, that I was there running the streets of Manhattan by myself being inspired for the past 8 years by Kathrine’s story, the friends I met in 2015, and the belief in myself as a runner no matter my age, weight, or speed. It is what #261Fearless is built on and has expanded nationally and globally.

The East River will never look the same to me again when I visit my son Adam who lives in Manhattan, or Times Square, since I ran through it yesterday. All these moments that make life so worth living were all based on saying “Yes” to one special woman because we clicked on the phone one day and made a plan to support each other. In doing so, my world is full of magical moments, magical women from around the globe and a belief in the magic of running.