While I was on a short vacation to that oasis of relaxation, the Great Wolf Lodge, an idea came upon me for our group. I had the opportunity to really improve upon this idea with Therese and Petunia. We seemed to be together all summer with similar barre, OT and run schedules. Therese and Petunia have fleshed out this idea and added their own particular talents to bring this idea to life. So here it goes…
One of the best joys in my life is knowing and spending time with you all. I often reflect how lucky I am to have connected with you all (most through bootcamp and then that connection led me to know the rest of you) and that connection has blossomed into a friendship with healthy benefits. I think we all experience many challenges in life, whether it is working, family, etc. but I can always count on a run or work out with you girls to pull me through and keep me in shape, mentally, emotionally and physically. You bring me health, peace, serenity, joy, comfort and lots of laughs. I cherish the memories we make: a solo run with one of you or a running party (as I like to call it)..where there is a herd of us and you get to talk to like ten folks in different duos and trios during a long run, or that crazy nike workout, or Seaside Half trip or a challenging half marathon training plan. As well as I enjoy the stories when I am not there –naked running man in Austin or the different conflicting thoughts on a new route or madcap spouse adventures.
I pair the thought above with the admiration for each of your writing skills. (Booyah to our parents and our teachers for making it so) Truly I have never been surrounded by so many who can translate the details of a workout, the creativity of an invite, a recap of a journey or a down right belly laugh phrasing as well as this group of gals. Those two thought processes married into the idea of a group blog to really the capture the essence of us, our group. The purpose of the blog could be to document our memories, act as a forum for us to share our perspectives/stories with each other whether it be from a time we were together or an experience when we are not and be a place where we inspire and reinforce each other (okay and entertain too). A blog would be an awesome way to bridge the miles with our BRFs in Macon and Austin. In an effort to bare it all on this idea, one other possible outcome that has crossed my mind is to for this blog to be public in the future. There are many, many excellent running bloggers out there but I have not yet found one that harnesses the power and the uplift one gets from a group of running friends like I believe we do (or at least I do). That grander thought is back burner and just an off shoot but I think it is important to note it at the beginning.
Before you love or hate this idea, let me share the details of how it would work and expectations (or lack thereof). Petunia, Therese and I brainstormed, over a few runs, these guidelines. (there may be more or less as we get into it)
· Therese has set up this blog to start as private to our group.
· Blogging contributions and reading would be private to our group until we make it public but if we open it to the public we do not want to go back and edit so blogs should be written with public consumption in mind. Personally (and this is only personal to me, Sadie, so take it or leave it) I would suggest implied profanity rather than using the actual words. For example, wtf rather than actually typing out what that stands for. Again that is personal to me and has to do with my thoughts on imprint on the internet. But it also comes to pass if we go public..and your kids or your mother might read it.
· The blog has two options to set up profile, using real names or made up names. You need to set up a made up blogger name, please. It is one of my sincere hopes that I am running when I am 80 years and I am still running with you gals..so the blogger name theme is OLD LADY NAMES from your grandmother’s generation. This also means if you are including the name of another one of our group in your blog post, you will need to use their blogger name. After we get set up, we can compile a blogger name cross reference and send it out on email.
· We would love it if everyone contributed but there is no expectation that you contribute if writing/blog posting is not your thing… There is no volume requirement of submissions. Just when the moment strikes you. Some may contribute a lot, some may not contribute at all. It does not matter.
· There are so many great ideas of what we could blog about. Here are a bunch of examples and I am sure you can come up with many more.
o Sharing a funny or heartwarming or story of conquest after a run or workout. There have been many times I have wanted to memorialize special or funny moments or thoughts after a long run. I love the route, I hated the route, I had a poignant conversation with one of you that was impactful to me. Running with a BRF on Inman, or running up this really steep Windsor Pkwy hill with another BRF, running a new and interesting route created by our BRF we sometimes put on route creation probation or hearing about the details of Yoga retreat or encountering live mice on the road with BRFs, first really getting to know a BRF on a long run with CRR @ Chastin, running a half marathon with pregnant BRF, watching a BRF sprint last two miles of Peachtree Battle as part of a 10+ mile run ‘cause she realized she has a NBSpa massage appointment.
o Sharing the details of a workout, perhaps a new one so the rest of us can hear about it like the Nike Workout, West Coast Workout, Fastwich on a Saturday, Pink Barre, Infinity Yoga, Stellar Bodies with our favorite instructor. However we may want to code name an actual business, for now.
o Sharing thoughts, perspectives and information on topics like hair while running, recipes, best new running/workout products (from our functional fashionistas). Some of these could be done survey style and posted by one person.
o A blog post dedicated to our spouses who make running possible either by handling the kids and/or the pets or by sleeping through it. Or rather the strategies we use to get the run PLUS coffee time.
o Rules of running with BRFS..those formal and informal. Start & End at Starbucks?
o Reflections on what we know and appreciate about each other. The more one BRF talks, the faster she runs. One BRF gets out in front and if you do not get her engaged in a conversation, she can set a terribly fast pace for the pack. BRF Bookclub. I am thinking a few of you need your own section just to post all your book reviews.
I will stop there as the examples and ideas are endless and not limited!
· Contributions do not always have to be written compositions, they can be links to articles, inspirational photos/posters, photos or on liners.
· It might have crossed your mind that writing about each other could threaten our harmony as one person’s perspective could be not appreciated by another. Thus, a key guideline would be that you must share a post with a fellow blogger if they are part of your post in any other way than purely factual. If I write, “Petunia and I decided to go to Orange Theory and here are the details of the work out”. I do not need to run it by Petunia as the post is just factual. However, if my blog post is about how Mavis particular difficulty or feelings about a work out, after a night on the town then I should run it by Mavis for approval.
· There should be one person who is the submission approver if for no other reason than to space out the postings. Maybe this will not be needed in the future but some of us will need technical help from those who are more savvy than me. We can even rotate this job if there is interest. But if on Monday we get five submissions, it would be nice to post one/day versus five at once.
I hope you are as jazzed about this idea as I am. Maybe to be a regular contributor, sporadic contributor, a reader participant or even an idea giver for surveys & blogs for others to write. However, if you are not jazzed and this just does not sit well with you, just email me and we will keep you out of it…no pressure, no drama.
Reading for a blogging adventure? Hope so!
Hope to be your BRF into our 80s,
Sadie
