Boston On My Mind

Monday was suppose to be a day of joy. I followed the Boston Marathon all morning long and was excited to see the elite runners push their bodies so far and achieve so much. I'm not sure if I'll ever be fast enough to cross that finish line or qualify for the race, but watching those that are, that have fought to get there, is always inspiring. One of my friends, Tiara, is training right now to get to Boston 2014 and she has made sacrifices and changes in her life that only following a dream will allow. She pushes her body every day to achieve greatness. She is my inspiration and the reason I have been thinking about seriously training to run Boston. The sadness, devastation, and destruction that the bombing created is inexcusable. It took lives, sparked fear, and brought a day that should have been about triumph and achievement into a small hell. It wasn't fair of the bomber to do, to crush dreams like that. 

The heroes that arose will never be forgotten. The power of the running community bonded through tragedy both in Boston and in the social media sphere is inspiring. Runners are a resilient group of people. We put ourselves through pain in training, make sacrifices in life, wake up at the crack of dawn all to train for just a few events in which most of us will never win. We do it because of the feeling we get from achieving our own personal best times and for encouraging others along the way.

Runners around the country and world are running today in remembrance of Boston. We have banded together as crews, groups, friends and individuals to honor those who could not achieve their dreams. We run to show the world that we will not back down. We are the strong, the brave, the resilient. We #RunForBoston. 

Life goes on and it would be a shame to ruin the moments that make runners who they are and not to share the triumphs. This week I had a personal design session set up with NIKEiD set for Tuesday. I have been excited about talking with the Nike design team and creating my own shoe for quite some time. It was a fun experience and allowed me to see how designers work and what they look for in their shoe inspiration. Today I built my own shoe via a video chat with a Nike designer. My design was inspired by my home state of Oregon and the Oregon Ducks and their green and yellow colors. Also, green is my favorite color and had to be in the design. The blue and grey reflect the Oregon rain and cloudy skies. I also wanted to include the blue and yellow tones to remember Boston, if only in a small way. I put my mantra "Run Fierce" on the shoes to push me onward in my training and remind me to push harder when I feel like slowing down. 

NIKEiD shoes take 4-6 weeks to arrive because they are custom made in the factory, so they should be here by the end of May. It is going to be so hard to wait! I can't wait to try the new Nike Free Run design and put them into my training cycle. Stay tuned for my review and for pictures when they arrive. Until then, I hope you are all running fierce!

The Shoes I Designed with NIKEiD!

I also got an exclusive email invite from the Run Nike Women DC series to attend a special Ellie Goulding concert the night before the half-marathon in DC. This is such a great early birthday present! I can't wait to attend and hear her in concert. I absolutely love her songs and attitude. She is an amazing runner and I know she will be inspiring to see pre-race. Be sure to follow my story and all the happenings in DC on my Twitter account @superwomankw. I'll also be running with blue and yellow ribbons in my hair to show support for Boston. Life must go on and racing must go on to show the world that we will not be scared away from doing what we love.

Ellie Goulding Running for Nike!

I wish you all the best in your race training and reaching your goals in life, whatever they may be. I hear back from Nuun Hydration on whether I get to run on their Hood to Coast team this year tomorrow so stay watching the blog for news. Win or lose, it has been a great experience sharing my love of running with Nuun.

~Karen