{you talkin' about me}

I'm dedicating this post to someone who constantly is inspiring me in almost all areas of life... she has no idea that I am doing this, at least not until she gets to the part where I actually name her by name, hehe!

I have many friends and family surrounding me on a daily basis that are inspiring me to be a better person in many different areas. There are definitely times in my life, probably in yours too, where you just need to take a look around and draw off of someone else's energy to help pull you through a tough time.

The person that I am dedicating this post to is Sarah Kopf. Yes, Sarah, you! (Because I totally know that you are reading this right now. And, I totally started this post early this morning-and I'm finishing it now this afternoon-and I think we were reading each others minds because you just recently posted this as your status: I never want to go through life keeping silent about what people mean to me. I want them to know. Now. Because how great would the world be if we just knew exactly how everyone felt about us and vice versa? How eerily awesome that we were thinking the same thing?!) If I know you in real life, there is a good chance that you know Sarah too. If not, you should! She is amazeballs! Sarah happens to live in a bright blue house (so jealous of the color of her house), just a few down from my semi bright red house. Yes, our bright personalities deserve bright colored houses, lol!

Before I go off on how amazeballs Sarah actually is, I wanted to let you know that she also blogs and if you haven't happened upon it yet, you should. She is the amazing author of Thinfluenced at http://www.thinfluenced.com/. Quick, go check it out... and then come back! This girl makes me laugh (and then cry) with almost every post!

I haven't known Sarah for a long time. We connected shortly before I moved back to our home town and I couldn't have been more excited to find someone so close who was also so much into fitness as I was. We instantly bonded over that and haven't turned back yet!

Sarah's drive for just about everything in life amazes me! Her son, Cole, has battled cancer twice in his short life (and from Sarah's constant updates, he seems to be getting a little better each and every day), and I can't even begin to imagine what those years were like for Cole and his family. As a mother myself, I know the unconditional love that you have for your child and then to see them suffer with cancer... TWICE! And yet, somehow, someway, as a family, they pulled through it together and keep moving FORWARD day after day! Even just seeing that for the last year amazes me!

Anywhoo, Sarah and I got connected with our love of fitness, but we connect on so many other levels too! She is such a free spirit and I at least try to be, haha! As everyone in life has ups and downs, so does she, but whenever I see her, she is always making the best of a situation. She always has a smile on her face, can always spare a minute for someone, gives the greatest hugs, and damn, she will kick your butt on a 10 mile bike ride, lol!

This woman (and her husband) are accomplished century bike riders. Hell, I thought running a half marathon was a feat, these people freaking biked 100 miles in ONE DAY! How is that for amazing! Well, Sarah and Nate (her husband), invited a bunch of people on a 'leisurely' bike ride last night. Leisure my ass, haha! I, of course, went with them because I am up for any challenge and really, bike rides are awesome!

Unfortunately, unlike Sarah and Nate, I have a mountain bike (they have awesome road bikes) and so it was a little more of a workout for me than them. Heck, I don't even know if it was a workout for them at all going at my pace, lol! It was awesome though and I had a lot of fun! It was the workout that I didn't even know my body was craving until the end and I could feel the soreness setting in. But it was a good soreness, like a... damn, I worked my body good soreness! It was a lot of fun going with both of them and Jay's cousin, Nicole who joined us. She also rocked the bike ride!

There was one point during the ride where we were headed straight into the wind going up a freaking ginormous mountain (puh-leaz, tell me that Wisconsin doesn't have ginormous mountains and I will punch you, because damn I never thought I would make it up that hill) and I felt like quitting. Seriously. I never feel like quitting. Even when the tough gets tough as shit. I keep going. And so I did what I tell Ayden to do anytime he wants to quit. I gave myself a pep talk. I kept pushing my legs forward... at what seemed like a snails pace... and I somehow made it to the top of the hill! I kept seeing Sarah and Nicole up in front of me and knew I could do it. It also helped that Nate was an awesome partner and stayed back with me.

And then when Sarah told me that the rest of the ride was gravy, of course I gave her shit when we had one last hill to go up right by our houses. How come in any direction to our house we need to go up some kind of kill? Kill me now, haha!

Honestly though, I had a great ride and plan to go on many more with Sarah, Nate, Nicole, and anyone else who wants to join us! I may never be as fast or awesome as them, but what makes it worth it is knowing that even though they may be able to kick my booty on the bike is that not one of them ever flaunt it in my face. They willingly slow down for my pokey self and we all have a great time!

Loves ya Sarah! Don't ever become unamazeballs because I just might have to shank you! Tee-hee!

CIAO! LOVE ME!