The Most Creative Blogger Award

I am doing a happy dance: I’ve been nominated by runningtoherdreams for the “The Most Creative Blogger Award”! An enormous THANK YOU to her, and if you haven’t visited her blog at http://followyourheartandlifewillfollow.wordpress.com/, go check it out!

The only condition for a blogger to fulfill in accepting this award is to provide their own perspective on: their creativity and their source(s) of inspiration. Then, nominate and notify 10 other bloggers for this award.

Okay, here goes…

I’ll start by pointing at the title of my blog. Running is a bottomless pit…no wait, too scary…running is a limitless source of creativity. When I can’t think of a subject to write about, I tug on my running shoes and hit the road (or trail). By the time I come back, I usually have at least the seed of an idea. And running does more than provide a mental stir-up. Often the run itself provides material, whether it’s something that happened during the run – perhaps narrowly avoiding a snake, or suddenly catching sight of a spectacular sunset – or the fact that this particular run is a “milestone” run: My first marathon. A race where I’ve set a personal record. My worst hill workout ever. My last run as a single person [okay, that one hasn’t happened yet, but when it does, I’m certainly going to write about it!]. You get the idea.

Another source of inspiration: travel. I love traveling, whether it’s for a race, or to visit people, or just because. Traveling frequently means stepping outside my comfort zone. It means meeting new people, running unfamiliar routes, eating new foods, and occasionally getting thoroughly lost on streets that I don’t know. Each of which, after the panic subsides, stirs the creative juices like crazy.

Traveling can also mean re-discovering my comfort zone. This happens any time I visit family. Returning to the nest, however briefly, grounds me and strengthens my roots. And sometimes, when life is chaotic and thoughts are flying around my mind with little to no cohesiveness, that grounding is exactly what I need to tap into creativity.

Finally, I draw tons of creativity and inspiration from, quite simply, the people around me. I see my friends doing phenomenal things with their lives, even in the face of events that would deliver a knock-out punch to most other people. Divorce? Illness? Death of a loved one? My friends go through these and come out the other end stronger and better than ever. They inspire me as a runner, as a writer, and as a person. Same goes for my family. Through their own examples, as well as their constant support and encouragement of my pursuits, from running to writing and everything in between, I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them.

And I really think it’s a two-way street: when family and friends support you, do it right back. Creativity, inspiration, motivation, whatever label you care to slap on it – when it’s shared back and forth between people, it generates a kind of kinetic energy. And that’s when really cool things happen, whether in the athletic, professional, or personal realms.

All that said, here are 10 blogs that exemplify that kinetic energy of creativity and inspiration:

Flake and Cake
MOMS RUNNING IT!
run pretty run fast
Vita.Vida.Vie
Belles and a Whistle
All In Stride
Blowin’ Around
shazruns
C’est La Vie Cuisine
The Sassy Swan