Runner of the Week:

This week, Faithful Soles is proud to honor runner and children's book author Brianna Grant as our "Runner of the Week".

Though Brianna "grew up" in dance studios around the country, spending countless hours in ballet, tap and jazz shoes, she never considered herself an athlete until she laced up her first pair of running shoes at the age of 23. In school she believed that the term athlete was reserved for those who play team sports or who were fast runners, swimmers, or cyclists. "Now I realize that I am able to enjoy running in my adult life BECAUSE of my years as a dancer. When I hung up my dancing shoes, I fed my creative self with writing, but there was still a void, which I now recognize was my athletic side. I had to get outside of the dance studio to notice how incredibly athletic dancers are - something my mother had been trying to get through to me for years!" Realizing that other girls and women in the world might also misinterpret althleticism as she had, Brianna wrote We Are Girls Who Love to Run to speak to the athlete in all of us.
 
"Running intimidated me, definitely. But when my husband would go for a run and come home smiling, I knew there had to be SOMETHING good about it. I decided to get myself off the couch and give it a try, afterall, my body had one time endured hours upon hours of aerobic exercise with my dance training." Starting off slowly, Brianna ran only two blocks on her first try, and then spent most of her "runs" walking with bursts of jogging. She slowly built up her distance, crediting her enjoyment of the longer times to figuring out how to breathe. "Once I fell into the right rhythm of breathing, I was hooked! Running made me feel good about myself and for the first time in a long time, I felt STRONG!"
 
A summer of 5K races in the Charlotte, NC region eventually led to her first (and only, thus far) marathon in November of 2003. "I was teaching third grade at the time and had a few students who were participating in the program Girls on the Run. There were days when I questioned my decision to train for a marathon (I was also finishing my Master's Degree!), but these girls were so enthusiastic about their own progress in running that THEY motivated ME to keep on my path toward my goal of completing those 26.2 miles." In the end, it really was her students that enabled her to cross the finish line. "I hadn't eaten enough along the course (typical beginner error) and was really struggling in the last few miles. My husband ran beside me and had me focus on getting from one orange course cone to the next - baby steps to reach the goal. As I passed each cone I said the name of one of my students. It did the trick. I could visualize them saying, 'Keep going, Mrs. Grant!' as our roles as teacher and student reversed." She finised in 4:58:02, meeting her goal of running the marathon in under 5 hours.
 
Now a full-time mother to three-year-old Ethan and baby Megan, Brianna continues to feed her creative self with writing with occasional articles for her community's newspaper, The River Current News. Though training for distance races hasn't fit into her life plan for a few years, the walks to the park with her children, family hikes and short runs she can do along side her husband, or with dog or kid in tow are treasured times in her week. "I'm not fast, but I'm proud that I stay fit and take care of the active part of my body and spirit. Days that I don't get to move just aren't as vibrant for me, so I do my best to do SOMETHING, even if it is putting in one of Ethan's CDs and dancing around the family room with my little ones. It makes all the difference."

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