motivation threesome

I met a guy this summer who instantly became my motivation to lose weight and train hard. We encouraged each other to perform our best in our respective sports. He pulled out two wins and now it was my turn to shine with a PR in yesterday's marathon by 41 minutes! We don't talk as often as we used to, but he's forever ingrained in my soul. He once admired my shell collection, so I spent my day-after-PR-marathon walk on the beach collecting new shells and reflecting on how he brought me to where I am today.

The second amazing guy that I met this summer is also partly responsible for my PR. He didn't necessarily encourage me to achieve my best, but he made sure I got out of bed many Sunday mornings and go for a run rather than lounge around until it would be too hot. He is committed to cycling with his friends on Sunday mornings, which is a quality I really admire about him.

Now I have a new man in my life.. Well, since we're relatives I guess I can't call him "new". We were never close, but his mom was my mom's favorite cousin. We reconnected this year through Facebook since I haven't made it to family reunions in years. He and his brother ran the half marathon yesterday and I really enjoyed having dinner with them the night before the race. He said I was his hero for finishing the full marathon. Now he's motivated to run his first marathon, but doesn't want to train alone. He's thinking about the Publix Georgia marathon in March and asked if I would run it too and train with him. I rolled my eyes and said I swore (pre-race) that Savannah would be my last marathon. But since I improved my marathon PR by such a huge amount, I can't help but wonder how fast I can go if I train even harder and lose another 10-20 pounds. He's much faster than me, but if he's willing to run slower I'll gladly make an effort to run faster and help him train for his first marathon. I'll help him with endurance and he'll help me run faster. Looks like marathon #5 is in the planning stages..