Purple Tiger – the pursuit…

Hi! Welcome to the Purple Tiger!

“So what is a purple tiger?” Well in order to answer, I’m going to have to tell you a story that started back in July of 2011. I hope you like stories, cause you’ll get a lot of them here and maybe you can share some of your own! 🙂

Back in July 2011 my husband, Craig, and I took a month off work and our holiday began with Craig running the Gold Coast marathon for the first time ever. I know I hear you saying, “That’s a holiday? Are you nuts??” Yes we are a little crazy! 🙂 That was an amazing journey in itself, and you can read about the before and after on our photography blog if you like. I have to say, watching Craig approach the finish line after running almost 4 hours, with the crowd cheering and music blaring from the grandstand, I was extremely proud, relieved and inspired!

I think that was possibly when the seed for the purple tiger was sown!

My passion for running started to grow in the few short weeks that followed. It wasn’t hard when I had beautiful stretches of beaches along the east coast to run on and delicious food to recover with 😛 Although at the back of my mind, I wondered if it was just a fleeting holiday fancy?

Nonetheless, to feed my newfound interest, my sneaky husband stocked me up with some great lookin Lorna Jane gear – good thing he has great taste and such a cute smile! 😛 So after almost an hour in store and leaving as a Lorna Jane Very Important Woman, I was locked in! I had to run now, otherwise I would have wasted all that money!

So let’s wind forward… 8 months later, lots of new socks, a few knee and ankle injuries, 4 bruised and battered toes, a number of blisters and 3 pairs of new joggers later … I am glad to declare that I LOVE RUNNING!!! Geez I sell it well don’t I? I know I see you shaking your head saying again “crazy, crazy, crazy!!” I have to agree with you on that one. In fact I was just thinking that, on my run this morning, that who in their right mind would think that getting up at 4:40am after having only about 2.5hours sleep, to run in the dark with drizzly rain and do 10 sets of hill repeats would feel so good! Now I know that you’re sure I’m crazy and think I should get my head checked – but you runners out there know what I’m talking about!! It’s the runners’ high – once you get it, you’re hooked! 🙂

Anyway, the key to the purple tiger is not so much in the running, but it was inspired by what a couple of fellow runners nicknamed me after they saw my latest pair of shoes. In my defence, I didn’t buy 3 pairs of shoes because I wanted to be fashionable or wasteful, but in my trial-and-error to find the right shoe, the first two pairs were beating up my toes so much, I thought my chances of becoming a foot model would surely perish if I didn’t stop running – Noooo!!! My ever optimistic brain says ‘there’s got to be a solution, there’s got to be a right pair of shoes for me’ So I am hoping my latest pair – fondly nicknamed my ‘purple tiger’ will be the end to my Frankinstein feet. I’ll keep you posted!

“But so what is the big deal – purple tiger? – why set up a whole website for it?” As I said, it’s not just about running. Ever since Craig and I embarked on this crazy running journey, one of our goals was to make it a lifestyle change and not the seasonal fad that it had been. “To really change some things, you’ve got to change some things”. In the process, we have embraced a re-education of what we’ve been taught about food, health and what’s good for our bodies. The purple tiger, for us, embodies our pursuit of a life lived WELL – in all manner of speaking.

We so don’t have all the answers, but we are on a journey, just like you, so let’s pursue the purple tiger together!