Heartwarming Moments: This is What Life is All About

Before I begin, I will just share about my time off, as I know many of you are curious.

So yes, after a major race, I take 10-14 days completely off.

As in no running, cross training, ElliptiGO, strength training, or even swimming…..although that does actually sound pretty relaxing right now.

As much as I would say I use that extra time to relax, I am not very good at relaxing, and we are pretty good at filling up that free time with other things.

Steve says I always find stress, and I would agree with that, but I love being busy!

I have been indulging, but it is very refreshing not having the scale there staring at me to remind me that my running is at 0, but my hunger is just as high as ever, and my sweet consumption has sky rocketed.

Even though I actually know where the scale is, I haven’t touched it in years.

Now that, my friends, is empowering.

Anyway, step away from running for a moment.

Life outside of running and who I am.

I haven’t really done one of these posts in a while, but this weekend just made me so thankful and happy, that those of you who keep up to date through my blog, if we were sitting in a coffee shop right now, this is what I would share with you as news.

It was just the most heart warming and special moment I have had since we moved here.

I truly noticed that was the moment we truly felt at home here, having a great friends dinner party. We have built a wonderful group of friends around us, and you know you have good people around you when they appreciate all the time and energy you put into things and just enjoy the little things.

It wasn’t about getting crazy drunk, it wasn’t about the food, it wasn’t about the glamour, but about the connections.

Even though all I wanted to do was spend the evening thanking them, for helping me to feel so loved and happy in a place that I never knew.

I spent most of that day preparing, and was SO proud of the spread we created.

Funny side note; almost every person asked me if I took a picture, which I did….almost, as you can see in the featured image for this post, there is one bowl missing, which I put chicken parmesan bites in.

To say we had a lot of leftovers was an understatement……even after giving food to my guests on their way out.

But it was a truly wonderful evening, and my running and non running friends came together.

I wish I took some photos, but during that time, whenever I thought about finding my phone to do so, I thought about how I would be interrupting the conversations, I would be thinking of the future, rather than being in the moment, and I just wanted to soak in all the buzz and energy that was in our house.

And to be honest, celebrate a little that it was going so well 🙂

This was the only photo anyone took…that I know of 🙂 I have known Gemma since she was a little peanut in her mommy Erin, and I have loved seeing her grow, thankfully, she knows me well by now and is comfortable around me.

I did put a lot of time and effort into making it a great evening, but at the same time, I kind of knew it would be worth it. I knew Steve and I had found a true group of friends who genuinely cared so much about us, and although a few were missing, it was great for them to meet one another too.

Team Ice Cream were able to meet one another, and share with the group about their roles (and flavors!).

It just got me thinking about why this meant so much to me.

I am not really sure, but it seems kind of destined that way from the day before. Sarah had interviewed me for the podcast, and had asked me who I was outside being a runner. I said that my family and friends were the most important things in my life, and that I enjoy making people feel good about who they are.

This evening for me represented that ability for me to show those people who have made me feel loved in a new place, that they are important to me, and I want them to be happy.

I love to run, but what I love more are the relationships I create, and being close to people. I think thats why I enjoy working for Runners Connect so much, as I get to spend my day building relationships.

For the record, Sarah had noticed the same thing about me. That episode will go live on Christmas Day 🙂

Okay, enough about that evening, one other thing I wanted to share with you was about the wonderful people I met the week of CIM.

That was one of the best experiences I have had with meeting people, and I honestly believe that is a big part of why I was in the right place mentally, as I just met people who reminded me that there is so much more to our lives than performance.

Steve and I spent the few days with one of my friends from university. Carlye was one of the first friends I made at ferris state, and she is one of those people who you stay close to. Even though you do not see one another much, and only talk a few times a year, when you do get back together, you just feel like you can pick up from where you left off.

That also took a lot of stress off me in the few days before as I knew I had nothing to worry about with Carlye. I felt comfortable and calm knowing staying with her would be familiar (I stayed in the hotel the few nights before). Spending time as a four (with her husband Nate, and Steve) was just amazing too!

Especially as Carlye loves food as much as I do 🙂

I also had a “fate” moment during my trip to California.

I talked about this on my Instagram, but for those of you who do not know.

I told you that I tend to struggle the week of a race with confidence and wondering why I do this to myself. One day I had put my run off until the latest possible moment, and on the run, I just felt so exhausted, I knew I needed some kind of intervention, or my mind would spiral out of control.

As I ran I thought to myself, what makes me feel positive and empowered?

Josh Trent’s interviews. Here the interview where he interviewed me in case you missed it.

So I picked an episode of Wellness Force that spoke to me, and it was about this incredible woman, Bonnie Kelly, who had overcome SO much in her life. It brought tears to my eyes, and towards the end, she had said something that just stuck with me:

Be Your Own Hero

Those words went right through to my heart, and ended up being one of the mantras I repeated to myself during the marathon.

But here’s where it gets really weird.

During that run, Josh texted me, asking for my address so he could send me a copy of one of his guests new book.

Yep, you guessed it, Bonnies book.

I texted Josh back (yes, while running), enthusiastically telling him that I was listening to that episode, and one I finished my run, I called him.

As always, he helped me to feel positive and excited about life, but here’s where fate came in.

Josh then told me, Bonnie LIVES in Sacramento.

After we got off the phone, he texted us both in a conversation saying we had to meet.

So we did!

The next day, I met Bonnie, and had the most wonderful two hours chatting away non stop, and I left the coffee shop feeling so inspired, confident, and happy. Bonnie had reminded me that I WAS doing something extraordinary, and I should be celebrating what I do more, even though I feel like it is just normal.

I won’t go on too much, but one thing I will say is that you should listen to this interview with her, and buy this book! Ah, I have only just started it, but I can just tell this is one of those life changer books, and I am probably reading it now as we fly to Orlando.

On the Saturday before the race, CIM held a shakeout run for the elites to run with the local running community and other people who were racing the next day. There were hundreds of people there, and I really enjoyed chatting to people while we ran around the park or just in the before/after.

One of the people I finally got to meet was Brian (Pavement Runner) and some of the #WeRunSocial group, which was awesome!

And of course, I already mentioned that I already met Tawnee, and we could have sat there all day chatting.

Promise I am wrapping this one up, but one other amazing moment for me during that trip, was when I was talking to Evie on Skype on Saturday afternoon, and a man walked past me, came back, and said “are you Tina Muir?”

I giggled and said yes.

He recognized my voice as he walked past! Said he was a fan of the podcast, and thanked me.

What a humbling moment. Evie just laughed to herself, she always says how the positivity and love just follows me around.

There were a few other moments like this throughout the weekend, and I just couldn’t believe that people were seeing me as someone to “be brave” to go to talk to.

I just wanted to say, that if you EVER see me “in real life”, please don’t hesitate to come up to me! I absolutely LOVE making new friends, and if you read my blog, we probably have similar interests, so I would be happy to chat 🙂

Okay, this post has been waaaayyy too long for an update, but oh well, that’s what you get.

really, I am just stalling.

We dont know which race I am doing next, so while we figure that out, you have to deal with some non running stuff.

Now go let me enjoy my time by the pool. Who knows, I may even relax 😉