About Me

Camping, backpacking, hiking, and skiing have always been part of my life. Soccer came into the picture when I was about seven and while I don’t find myself out on the pitch anymore I have found that all those years of running around like a chicken with my head cut off after a ball lead me to develop a passion for running. Soccer quietly left my life 6 years ago and since then I have dabbled with local 5k’s, 10k’s, and the occasional 4 milers. But it was not until about a year ago that I decided to take on the challenge of running a half marathon. It all started with a phone call that came from one of my best friends, Kimi. It went something like this: “I am running the Georgia Peachtree Marathon in March. Want to do it with me?” I promptly responded that she was crazy and that I was only half crazy and would prefer starting with a half marathon and then I would do a full with her. So i signed up for a local half marathon and laughed at how her aches and pains were double what mine were. Then about a month after we both finished our respective events I got another phone call. And it went something like this: “You said after you trained and ran a half marathon you would do the same for a full. You accomplished a half and I signed up for the 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon... and you are doing it with me. No excuses.” Now for those of you who know Kimi she is not one you can easily say no to, and miraculously I had managed to say no to her once so I this time without hesitating I agreed.

For the next five months we spent every day hitting the pavement, recovering, complaining, but most of all motivating each other. And then on October 7th we met in Chicago and I ran my first marathon and she her second! I am not gonna lie the experience was time consuming (you can say goodbye to your social life and weekend nightlife), painful (invest in a foam roller), mentally, physically, and emotionally draining but so worth it. So worth it in fact that I came up with a wild and crazy hair brained idea to run a marathon in every state. And this blog is my way of documenting the ups and downs of all 50.

I am not fast. I frequently skip workouts if a better opportunity comes along. I have used every excuse in the book not to train. I have a tendency to  complain about running, even though it makes me happy. I loathe getting up early for long summer runs (I would rather run in 2 feet of snow than 80 degree weather). Ice baths and I are not friends. But only goal is to finish at this point. I am out just out there for the joy of running - the runner’s high, the feeling of accomplishment after a hard run, the stress relief, the running community, and most of all the friends I have made along the way and the people running has brought me closer to.