My Inspiration

Lately, there’s been quite a bit of blogging about inspiration and motivation. I thought I’d chime in on the subject as well. Now I’ve already written about why I lost the weight, write the blog, and try to live a healthy life, but it’s always a good idea to reflect on the reasons for the choices that we make.

My inspiration is my family. I don’t want to be the fat dad who can’t play with his kids or go for a walk with his wife. And I was headed in that direction. But one day in 2007 the light switched on in my head and I haven’t looked back since. Now I’m the dad who tuckers out his kids, plants the garden for his wife, and still has energy at the end of the day to go for that walk.

Last Saturday, Pam and I celebrated our 11th anniversary–one more reason to be reflective about my life. Eleven years ago, things were much different for us. We had no kids, no house, less demanding jobs, and a lot more free time. But I was lazier and fatter, and definitely less fit. My days were filled with video games, internet surfing, TV watching, a sedentary job, and some sporadic activity once in a while. While I still do my fair share of internet surfing and TV watching, I’m a much more active person than I used to be and I couldn’t be happier with my life.

Yesterday was Father’s Day. I had a great day (watching sports and surfing the internet of course). But the first thing I did after eating breakfast and opening the plethora of Dad’s Day cards was go for a nice run with T. We did seven miles (4 of them hard and 3 of them easy) in the June gloom of Salem. I spent the rest of the day touring new houses with the kids and lounging around the house. It was very nice and Pam was awesome about keeping the kids busy and letting me do my own thing.

So I have a lot to be grateful for and inspired by. I’m truly a lucky man. But there’s one thing that I don’t talk about very often that I feel needs a special mention. I wouldn’t be the man I was today if I didn’t have the perfect partner.

Pam is the ultimate motivator. She’s organized and efficient–and man is she driven. I just mentioned that we recently celebrated our 11th anniversary, but we’ve actually been together for the better part of 18 years now (I’m a slow guy ok?). Through those years, I’ve been able to watch her set (and meet) goal after goal after goal. When she’s made up her mind to do something, it gets done. And it gets done well.

This coming weekend, Pam is going to attempt her second 100 mile race–the Western States Endurance Run. For those of you who don’t know anything about the crazy world of ultra running, there are hundreds of ultra marathons every year with thousands of competitors. Most ultra marathons take place in wilderness areas on trails and this particular race is the most popular, most storied of them all. Dare I say it’s the Super Bowl (I didn’t pay the NFL fee for using that term BTW) of endurance races.

Pam has put in the training time, she’s done the preparation, and she’s now in the middle of a taper that is driving her crazy. But just like every other goal she sets for herself, she’s going to knock this one out of the park as well.

If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is.