Running with a B.A.M. (bad ass mama)!

     Welcome to my inaugural post.  Let me introduce myself.  I am KB.  I am a soon to be 35 year old wife, and a mother of one.  As my blog implies, this post is about my love of running.  What is running with a B.A.M.? Well, it means running with a bad ass mama.  I by no means am stating that I am a bad ass mother all of the time, but I have moments where I feel a little bad ass-ness coming out in me.  And, the bad ass-ness is mainly referring to my personal running achievements, not my mothering abilities!  Trust me, I am not one of those mothers who has it all together!  In fact, I think I am far from that, but that is a whole other topic.

      Let me give you a little background of my running history.  In high school I joined the Cross Country Team, ran for about 1-2 weeks, and then quit.  That was the last amount of running that I did until a little over a year ago.  I would pick up running for a few weeks, thought that I hated it, and quit again.  And then I had my son and I was working hard to lose the baby weight.  I would work out at home and then I thought I  needed to add some cardio to help me lose more weight.  I begged my husband to let me get a running stroller, and given my history with running, he compromised by letting me get a second hand running stroller from a consignment shop.  I started out using the C25K app which slowly gets you accustomed to running, and I found that I loved it.  I loved being outside, I loved the energy and the high I had after running, but mostly I loved being an example to my 8 month old son.  He's my running partner.  He's my motivator and my cheerleader.

A few months after I began running, my husband signed us up for a 5K.  I had no idea what to expect, but I thought I'd go out and have fun.  My little dude (LD) and I finished the 5K 3rd place in my age group.  That was it, I was hooked.  The competitive side of me came out and I wanted more!  Since then we've run a 10K and finished first overall female, and a 15K finishing first in my age group, and completed another 5K with another first place in our age group.  And this past fall we (LD and I) ran a half marathon together and finished in under 2 hours!  Now, let me tell you, I am a small fish in a smaller pond, meaning I am not a crazy fast person, I just have a small amount of competition surrounding me.  Never-the-less, those finishes, especially completing the half marathon with a stroller, make me feel like a B.A.M.

 
 So, what is the purpose of this blog?  Well, I am hoping to inspire, support, motivate, and cheer on my fellow running mamas, my fellow B.A.M.s out there by sharing my trials, tribulations, failures, and triumphs of running.  I would love to create a virtual community of B.A.M.s out there who can support and motivate each other in achieving whatever personal goals we might have.  Maybe you are not a runner, but you have some other personal fitness achievements that you are a B.A.M. in, welcome to the community!  Let's celebrate our achievements and carry each other through to our goals!  I'd love to hear what your current goals are!

Run On!
KB