I guess I look it, at least that's what people say.

Quite often I am asked if I have always been a runner. 

My short answer: Yea, I guess, somewhat.

My actual story:

Way back when in 8th grade, I vaguely remember having to do a fundraiser during PE by running mile loops.  I don't remember the charity, how much I raised, or how many loops I ran. I feel like I ran the most loops which later on was my only qualification for my peers to vote me as cross-country captain of a brand new team sport.  Some how we were able to conjure up a team and at least have practices after school in the big square grass field behind the school.

Freshman XC.  I also danced,
so that is why I am wearing a dance shirt and Danskin shorts. 

After that school year, I ran a 5k in the new town I moved to with my dad.  The high school cross country coach was also the RD of this annual race.  He found me at the finish and talked to me about joining the cross-country team which was just about to start practice for the fall 1994 season. Let me be pretty clear about this, if you even thought you could run a tiny bit and showed up for practices, you were on the team.  There were no tryouts and everyone was welcome; we are talking about a farm town school with 300 some odd students.  I wasn't a coveted runner that coaches were recruiting!

Senior Year XC, with our horrible warm up gear!

Through out my four years of high school, I ran cross country and track religiously.  I wasn't very good, I didn't necessarily enjoy it, but I did it.  It was just another school subject to me. For cross country, I was consistently the second slowest girl on the team, no matter the year.  I did improve some year to year but I was mid- to back- of the packer.  In track, the faster cross country girls did the 4x800 relay or the one mile.  I always did the 2 mile race and once in a while I was given the privilege to run the mile.  I vaguely remember thinking those 2 mile races sucked and lasted forever.  But, that was my job, to run that race.  To this day, when I smell slightly composting mulch of a sewer plant, I think of spring track practices (our track was across the street from the small town sewer plant).  Running the front straight 100, I would stare at the 50,000 gallon, light blue water tower across the street; the back straight 100, I would stare at the beautifully groomed green softball field and quite frequently listen to "Put me in coach, I'm ready play today."  Ah, memories.

My only two sports, all four years.

The summers between school, I don't recall running at all.  I think I still did participate in the local 5k/10k race every August.  Of course, I only did the 5k.  How could someone run over 6 miles at one time?  It seemed so much farther down the country road for the turn around, so isolated.  These were the only two distances that I even knew existed in long distance running.  I didn't know anything else but I also wasn't curious, wondering, or even really interested.

In college, I never really ran.  Once in a great while I would.  I remember specifically one beautiful overly warm February day freshman year, I put on tennies and pair of shorts to run along the lake path on campus.  That's it; that's all I ever remember doing.


Fast forward a few years later, while walking on the treadmill (only to warm up before my weight training), I saw an ad on the TV for the Avon 2 Day Walk for breast cancer.  Cancer doesn't run in my family so I am not sure what persuaded me to want to walk 39.3 miles over 2 days (26.2 miles day one and 13.1 miles day two).  In June of 2005 I participated while 4 months pregnant (I did not do the entire 39.3 miles) and then I returned in 2007 to complete the 2 day event.  This event may not have been the main reason why I started marathons, but I am sure that the training I did helped me eventually realize I could do it when it later became a goal. I continued to participate in the Avon 2 Day walk but as a crew member from 2009-2017.

While pregnant with my daughter, I gained about 45 pounds. I lost most of it, but I had that annoying 10-15 pounds that didn't want to come off.  I decided to start to run.  No reason in particular why I chose to do that.  But I couldn't go out and just run. I couldn't do a mile, I couldn't really do half a mile.  So without knowing exactly what I was doing, I would use time to set up intervals to walk/run.  I know today that I actually had a pretty good instinct to know what to do, I recommend to people who want to start running to do what I did back in 2006.  In the very beginning I would walk 5 minutes, then run for a set interval, walk again, etc.  As I went out more and more, I would reduce the time walked and increase the time ran.  Eventually I was able to run a mile without any walking.  I kept increasing my mileage and I finally was able to loose the last baby weight over time.

While I was finishing my Master's degree in 2007, my adviser used the analogy of the program being a like a marathon.  The beginning is fun and new but you're nervous; the middle is long and dragged out, you start to stumble at the end of the middle; as you are nearing the finish, you can see the finish line, you know what you need to to do to get there, it's possible to finish.  Let me say now that he had NEVER run a marathon.  How could he know what it was like?  People also say giving birth is like running a marathon.  That is when I decided I wanted to run a marathon.

I remember watching the 2007 Chicago Marathon; yep, the one that was cancelled and rerouted during the event because of extreme heat.  That there solidified me wanting to run a marathon.  Whoa there, how does excessive heat, running out of water, dehydration of runners, and loss of life make you actually want to run a marathon.

I have now learned, it was because I like a challenge.