I live somewhere in between the chaos raising three children and my marriage. And upon having my third child I realised I needed a reason to get out of bed at six in the morning.

So I started running again.

The bonus of running wasn’t only the fact that I had an hour to myself -okay that was a HUGE bonus- but it meant I could start feeling like me again.  And I was doing something that didn’t involve being a mom or a wife. And it is incredibly easy to lose yourself once you no longer feel like you are a priority anymore- three kids screaming at you all at once can have that effect on you.

A few months ago I decided to make myself a priority again.

The first thing I did was start running. The second was going back to yoga. Now the key to staying successful in these areas can be trick. I don't alwats want to get up at 6am. Sometimes it rains... sometimes that pillow is so comfortable...and other days you just don’t feel like doing anything – either the kids have worn me down or you’re dammit I'm just too tired! But excuses were not getting me anywhere, so I needed to decide how to resolve this issue and I did so by making little financial commitments.

Yoga was easy, I let myself afford a twenty class pass and now I have committed myself to going twenty times to get my money’s worth. I am obligated to go now, not only by shear enjoyment, but because those classes are expensive!

Running on the other hand is a bit trickier. It’s free to get up and run every morning, but that doesn’t make it fun. Fun actually comes from the races you sign up for, and you shouldn’t sign up for a race if you don’t think you can go the distance.

How do you go the distance? You start running.

My first 5km training went well. I signed up for a local run, got a t-shirt and a medal and my dollars went to a good cause bringng water to Ethiopia.

High five me.

And with one race down, the only way I’ll keep getting out of bed is to sign up for another...and another. And slowly the distances I am signing up for are getting longer...and longer.

And then every once in a while you come across a race like this...

One day after watching this video, I signed up and started flexing my meagre muscles in the mirror. This is the reason I get out of bed three days a week and run 8km.

By this November I will be running 10km... at night...wearing a headlamp, and sporting yet another new running shirt!