If I Didn't Run...

This week has really sucked the joy out of a lot of us. While this is not even remotely a political blog, I was stunned and saddened by the election results. To me, it felt like a bad dream. But what's done is done, and life goes on. The sun came up the next morning. I felt grateful for all that is good in my life. My family, my friends, my coworkers, and my dog.

I also felt grateful for running. No matter how busy I am, no matter how tired I am, I always make sure I get outside and run. Running is my therapy, my muse, my love--I can't imagine getting through life without running. Today's Friday Five 2.0 prompt asks: what activities would you do besides running? What would make me happy if I didn't run?

Not run? Now that's a bad dream! Not really. In all seriousness, there are other things in my life that could fulfill me. And none of them have to do with work.

You might not know this about me, but in my younger days, I was a musician. I played the piano for many years. I also played the oboe and the bassoon. I wanted to pursue a career in music but you know, life. I actually wanted to be in a band. Chrissie Hynde (the Pretenders) was my idol. I don't know if the rock and roll lifestyle would have worked for me. For one thing, I'm a morning person and I like to go to bed about 9. I also battled with stage fright. While I still play the piano occasionally, I guess I have to be content singing along with my tunes while I run.

My love for yoga is no secret. Second only to my love for running, I practice yoga at least twice a week. I regularly share my yoga poses here on the blog. I've been doing yoga almost as long as I've been running. Yoga has brought enormous benefits to my running and life in general. Over the past year, I've started to consider yoga teacher training. In another year or so, I plan on working on that and bringing my love for athletics to the mat, hopefully teaching yoga to athletes. In the meantime, I still need to work on a few things. Like balance.

Ooops...headstand fail on Thursday morning. At least the sun was shining!

If you've been following me for a while, you know how much I love water sports--in the summer, I post regularly about my SUP and kayaking adventures. If I could, I'd live on the water so I could participate in these two activities any time I wanted. Exploring by kayak has become a whole new thing for me and it's something I can do with my boys. I'd love to do a lot more of that.

Cocoa enjoys kayaking too!

I also would like to try SUP yoga. But only if the water is warm. Since I struggle with balance poses on land, it's a guarantee I'll be getting wet if I do yoga on a SUP!

My son's SUP yoga fail in July.

Another water sport I love is water skiing. Holly isn't the only waterskier in our running blogger circle! Due to life circumstances, I haven't been able to ski for the last couple of years, but that doesn't mean I'm done. In fact, Holly and I have talked about waterskiing camp--yes, it's a thing and it's for grownups!

Cypress Gardens, here we come!

Pro tip: Find some handsome young guys to drive you around the lake in a boat.

It was hard for me to narrow it down to just 5 things! What would you do if you didn't run? 

Check out all the other posts at the Friday Five 2.0 on Meranda and Lacey's blog as well as Rachel's!