Motivational Mondays (Aug. 2)

Why do I blog?

Why do I take time out of (almost) every day?

At first, it was a way to organize my thoughts as I trained for my first-ever race, the 2008 Camp Pendleton Mud Run. Then it became an outlet for me as I grew and developed into a full-fledged marathoner.

I sprinkled in family posts, still do occasionally, and have shared many personal thoughts and hopes, dreams and fears along the way with the hopes of possibly inspiring others to run or to tackle whatever challenge in their life they may think unreachable.

Still, this blog would not exist save for one thing: my readers.

Now, I know I don't have a lot of readers. Some blogs I read have 100, 200, 500 or even 1,000 readers. That's fantastic. Others I read daily or as often as possible have followers in the 10s, 20s, 30s, and that's great to. I don't read blogs because of the popularity of them, and I know my readers aren't like that either.

It's great to know I have readers, and great to know some of them peruse this blog daily or often. That's why I blog, for them, for my readers and blog buddies. There's a connection there, at some level. And what's been a treat this summer has been the chance to actually meet some readers/blog buddies.

Since early June, I've met a grand total of five of my blog buddies. Four of them were planned and one was the greatest coincidence that's happened to me in... perhaps ever.

In chronological order:

flexin' with Tahoegirl at the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, June 5

I met Tahoegirl (Anne) and Mr. Tahoegirl (Anne's husband) at Camp Pendleton as the two were starting out a two-week West Coast vacation - poor Tahoegirl lives in the faraway land of Michigan :(

Anyway, Tahoegirl does not have a blog but has been a friend and reader since the early days of this blog. She is running the Chicago Marathon in October, and you know I will be and have been supporting her throughout her journey to her first marathon and on the big day itself.

A few weeks ago I had the treat to meet...

Lisa and LB on a blazing-hot summer day

... Lisa of Discovering the Meaning of Stonehenge (a runner's journey). That's a mouthful :) We just so happened to go to the same beach on the same day and sat about six yards apart from each other. Too stinking crazy!

I came across Lisa's blog a few weeks before Surf City as I was looking for other bloggers/runners who would also run the marathon on Feb. 7. Lisa had run two marathons before that day and set a fantastic time, a PR of 3:57:17. I have to say, one of the posts that I've enjoyed the most of hers was her thoughts on Surf City and how she was able to smash her previous times (Marathon 1 - 4:54, Marathon 2 - 4:16).

This was the lone unplanned bloggy meet-up and I still cannot believe it happened.

I hit the mother lode of bloggers in San Francisco. In two days, I met three amazing bloggers, runners, women.

First, before my muscles had gotten the chance to recover, I met...

A pair of losers! as in, losers of weight :)

... Amanda of Fat Wuz Here. I mentioned Amanda in my race recap but I can't say enough about Amanda. Her grit and determination to get through her second half marathon of the year is admirable. Amanda and I both have dropped a ton of weight and are both striving to meet our running goals. Amanda will run the Disneyland Half Marathon in September and I'm hoping Mickey and Co. are nice to her.

On Monday, I capped off a great weekend by meeting two more awesome bloggers/runners/women as I met up with...

A trio of stars!

Katie A. of One Run at a Time and Jill of Run With Jill.

I was in the presence of marathon greatness. Both Katie and Jill ran the Boston Marathon this year. The day before, Katie had run the 2nd Half Marathon while Jill ran the full. I've been blog buddies with the two ladies since the end of last year, beginning of this. I'm not sure if they stumbled across my blog or vice versa, but I felt strange since they are marathon queens and I hadn't yet run my 26.2, but they took an interest in this blog and I'm glad they did. The two ladies are serious runners and their energy and enthusiasm for running is contagious.

Now, those are the latest blog buddies I've met. Last year in Seattle I met two fellow bloggers/runners during an 18-miler on a cold and rainy day. And of course my Loper buddy Angie I met by reading her now-defunct blog.

I hope to meet more blog buddies/readers in the future. I have plans to go to Toronto on business this year and would love to race in Seattle, Salt Lake and Las Vegas in the next two years or so, so I'm not quite done meeting up with my small but hearty following.

Blogging is fun of course - I wouldn't do it if it felt like a chore. Meeting blog buddies/readers is just a huge bonus as far as I'm concerned.