Community Voices for Health

By: Kris Berry

Guilt.  If you are a mom, you know what guilt feels like.  There is guilt for being too much of a “helicopter mom” and guilt for letting your kids play alone for too long.  Guilt for letting them have that extra snack and guilt for feeling like they haven’t had enough.  You name it, if you are a mom – there’s guilt involved.

Imagine the guilt I felt when I was presented with the opportunity to spend mother’s day weekend running.  Not just one day, but the entire weekend spent in a van (away from my family) running 200 miles with strangers.  I’m sure most moms would rather have the chance to go to a spa for the weekend, but the idea was really tempting to me.  Doing an overnight relay was something I had wanted to do for a few years now and it was hard for me to turn the opportunity down.  My husband reassured me that I wasn’t abandoning anyone and that I could use the time away so I went.  And you know something?  It worked out just fine.

Last weekend I joined in with five other runners and we ran from Plymouth to Provincetown overnight.  The six of us ran about 200 crazy, exhausting, amazingly fun miles in a little over 27 hours.  Like I’ve said before, running keeps me balanced and centered.  I did something I loved for a weekend and then returned to my family refreshed and renewed (despite not sleeping for a few days).  It did us all a favor, and we still had time to go out to lunch as a family.

I spend the better part of the year putting the needs of my family before my own.  This year, I took Mother’s Day literally and did something selfish just for me.