When we talk about role models, we usually mean rock stars or actors or star athletes.
The women and men who completed the No Boundaries course by running or walking or a bit of both in the Gallop 4 the Greenways 5K race in Roanoke on Saturday are regular people with regular lives.
They are moms and grandmoms and stepmoms and petmoms and a few husbands and dads. They have jobs and worries and hassles and health issues -- just like the rest of us.
They are not more fit than we -- or at least they weren't when they started the NoBo program just 13 weeks ago. Their lives are not less complicated, less busy. They give the lie to all of our excuses.
Liz Scribner, one of the NoBos, said her 9-year-old son Ryan told her last fall that he had never seen her run.
"How sad!!!" she said.
And she is right. Or make that was right.
Scribner's two sons, Ryan and Matthew, and her daughter Catie, have already seen their dad, Dennis, compete in triathlons. Now, they have seen that their mother can be strong and healthy too.
As much as kids look to television and sports teams for role models their most important ones will always be right there at home.
My own mom worked full time from the time I was in kindergarten but somehow managed to always come to my field hockey games when I was in high school. Now that she's a retired grandmother, she still works out regularly, plays golf, swims and both takes and teaches courses at her local community college.
My dad, too, works out almost every day.
Both are cancer survivors.
They remain role models, not just for my sister and me, but also for my nieces and nephew.
How about you? Is there someone who inspires you to get off the couch?
-- Katrina Waugh
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