It takes a village.

So, I started running this summer.  I just got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.  And the couch to five K program seemed like something I could do.  So I did.  And it was easy in the summer to run, which I did three times a week.  I got through five weeks of the nine week program pretty steadily.  I lost a little bit of weight too, which was nice.

But fall came.  The days are shorter, and it gets dark when I have time to run.  Our schedules are waaay busier, and I am too tired in the evenings to think about running.  Luckily one of my neighbors noticed my dilemma and offered a solution.  So once a week, usually on Tuesdays but not always, Miss C comes and sits with my girls while they nap.  And I?  I am able to run.  It is wonderful. Progress has been slow though.  Illness and scheduling have eaten into my routine.   Since the beginning of October I have not completed ONE WEEK in the couch to five K.  I am STILL stuck on week six.  And ya know what?  I'm ok with that.  It's not a race.  :D  I am lowering my expectations.  My goal is to run twice a week now.  Once, on whatever Day Miss C and I come up with, and once on the weekends.  So far I've been ok about keeping up. 

Knowing that someone else is interrupting her schedule to sit with the munchkins while I run is a great motivator.  Also a great stress reliever.  The girls (maus especially) are just not at an age when I can leave them alone for long enough to run.  And it is important that I do this.  It is important to my health, and it makes a difference in my energy levels.  I look forward to the solitude and music.  I look forward to achieving that little bit extra that I didn't last time out.  Running a bit faster, a bit farther, being a little bit less out of breath or less sore the next day.  So it is worth it to carve out this time, and I'm lucky I live in a neighborhood where if you don't ask for help, people offer it regardless.  It does indeed take a village.  And what a great village I live in.