Afoot and Light-Hearted...

There are people in my life that may never understand why I run and the lifestyle that I have adopted when it comes to overall health and wellness.  Remember, I ran (at least) 2 half marathons (plus dozens of 5 and 10-K races) when I was at my absolute heaviest weight of around 250lbs - I was literally the healthiest heavy girl I knew - which was a duel edge sword.  To have so much control and discipline when it comes to physical training but struggle on the nutritional side leads to so many feelings of defeat, failure, and overall depression.  When I asked for help and chose to have the gastric sleeve surgery in 2017, it allowed me to finally work to create the kind of person that I always knew I was - my outsides matched the inside 'inner beast' that I knew always existed. There has never been any shame in asking - anyone that thinks I took the easy way out remember this; I was running 13.1 at 250lbs - never forget that? WLS is only a tool and I respect anyone's decisi...

In the Spring of 2022, my husband was given a new job opportunity that had us relocate from our home for 20 years in Massachusetts to Colorado - 2,000 miles away!  Since that time, it's been quite a journey for our family and us. While our kids are pretty much grown and on their own paths, it was hard to say goodbye to the house that we lived in for so long as this crazy blended family. There are no rule books when it comes to blended families, and for better or worse - somehow we made it through to set off some pretty good humans into the world. So we put up the "For Sale" sign, packed up the house (and dogs), and drove to Colorado.  It was hard - did I mention that?  Earl had already been living in Colorado since May in order to start his new job; he flew back to Massachusetts so we could drive out to Colorado together with our dogs, Shelby and Seeley. We planned a 4-day drive in order to make sure we were not asking the dogs to be in their crate for unreasonable am...

 Over the course of my running 'career' (haha!) I've always had a dream that I would one day want to share my story in podcast form. Reason for this, you may ask? I want to remove the stigma, fear and the feeling that 'it's too late' to start running...  This summer, I've enrolled in a course to learn a bit more about creating a podcast and some of the technology that is used to do so; that and talking to some great friends that have launched their own podcasts have given me some great tools to get started.  So here goes... my Episode One of "Afoot and Light Hearted" - the podcast. It's short and to the point - just like me!

 So I ran the Boston Marathon... wow On Monday, April 18th I ran the 2022 Boston Marathon . What an AMAZING experience that I will never forget.  While I am still putting my thoughts together around the day and journey, I thought I'd try to write a bit to capture some things while they are still fresh in my head.  First of all, for those interested  - I received my bib to run the Boston Marathon through my running club - the Greater Lowell Road Runners . There is a process by which they receive bibs from the Boston Athletic Association and they award them to club members through an application/review process.   Training Plan: www.marathonrookie.com  Time to Train: Approximately 16 weeks (buffered in a few weeks for any schedule shifts due to work) We all trained in the winter for Boston - there really is no getting around that if you live in New England. Sub-zero temperatures, snow, ice, etc. - it all adds to the stress (I mean) strength of you as a ru...

In less than 2 weeks I will run the 2022 Boston Marathon . My goal for the race is to finish strong and see myself through this amazing lifetime goal that I've had for SO many years. It won't be fast and honestly, I can't even promise that it will be pretty but I will finish.   The 2-week time frame leading up to the race is called the "taper" - this is a time when you reduce your miles, rest your body, and go absolutely crazy :)  Funny, this is a time as a runner when you would benefit from a long run - but it's the time to not tax your body so you can be fresh for race day.  So - what do you do? Takedown your curtains in the house to wash, purge the junk drawer and write all of those letters you have been putting off. Since the start of the year, my time has been almost completely occupied by planning my long runs, running, recovering from the long run - oh, and eating.  This past weekend, I had a shorter run and was amazed at how many hours I had left on m...

from Russell Avenue to Boyston Street The road to the finish line of the Boston Marathon started in a small city nestled in the Hudson River Valley - Beacon, NY.  While the city I grew up in has grown up itself, as a young girl sometimes all you wanted was to be able to leave.... and I did.  Admittedly, I spent a lot of time as a young woman creating reasons to get out of gym class and being terrified to have to run. The irony of that is that now I pay money to run races - if my gym teachers and soccer coaches could see me now.  In January of 2022 - I received an email that changed my life. My running club, the Greater Lowell Road Runners, awarded me an invitational bib to tun in the 2022 Boston Marathon.  The training has been something I have not taken lightly; I've done the work and put in the time and now I have to trust in that process and know that the training doesn't STOP the pain, it teaches you how to best handle it!  On April 18, 2022, I will stand at...