My Weekend Reading: "Run Like a Mother"

I just got my copy of “Run Like a Mother” by Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, and I am LOVING it.

I’m learning a lot, thoroughly entertained, and at points really moved to read about other mothers who feel just like I do about running.  There are a lot of running quotations from many different mothers, as well as Dimity and Sarah’s stories.

It makes sense that I’m not the only mother out there who NEEDS a run some days in order to make it through dinner and bedtime without snapping.  Yet it’s still amazing to read a book that makes me feel like I’m part of a big community of people who have discovered that running isn’t just about a sense of accomplishment, or self-improvement, it’s about survival.  It’s about making it through your day, or your week, and being happier and more energetic because you ran.  It’s about those post-run endorphins, about that thirty minutes, forty minutes, or even a couple hours where no one is asking you for anything or interrupting you.

You don’t have to be a parent to appreciate the alone time and the positive mood lift from running – moms are not the only ones running down their stress levels!  It’s just that for me, it took becoming a mother for my need to run to outweigh the challenge of getting into shape.  It was finally so necessary that the effort of completing C25K became worth it for me.  (I began running because of some post-partum depression.)

If I’d known the benefits on the other side, I would have done it in my early twenties instead of my late twenties, but it’s hard to know until the hard part of getting into shape is over and the real running begins!

I’m loving this book, because it’s got great advice for newer runners, lots of great thoughts on being a parent and balancing running with the rest of life, and, frankly, I’m obsessed with running right now and this gives me something to connect me to my passion when I’m not actually running 🙂