I’ve always been super active. As a child, along with my sisters, my brother and whomever we might be hanging with, we were either playing an outdoor game, swimming at the beach, riding bicycles around town or hiking through the woods, rarely did we let boredom get the best of us. Sunny and hot we’d spend sun-up to sun-down swimming at Northside Beach; cold and snowy we’d build igloos and hike down the lane carrying our snow tubes to sled down the hill. It was great. The photo below is of my favorite childhood summer home; Northside Beach! I was and still am a pretty fantastic swimmer because of this place! I could hold my breath for minutes, open my eyes and swim so fast along the bottom at 13 feet deep and I knew the place by heart. It no longer exists.

Often, my dad would run around our block during the evening for exercise and us kids would stand there with cups of water to hand to him as if he were a participant in an actual race. “Go DAD! You’re winning!” Every June to kick-off summer, the local Hospital hosted their annual Bethesda Mile. When I was five years old, it was the first time I’d ever entered the race. My sisters and I trained on the same loop my dad always ran, with him helping us along, teaching us to find a pace to run steady and relax. Oh, and to not eat a ho-ho prior to any run or you’ll end up with a side splitting cramp. We then all ran the Bethesda Mile. Well, I kind of ran it. I walked some and then gagged a little when whooshes of car exhaust and the smell of a dead animal carcass was blown downwind. After I came in almost last, I recall seeing the winner be given a gift in a ceremony and thought “I’m going to win this race someday.” I did. In high school. They gave me a giant fruit basket. Of all the medals I had already received from races throughout my running career up to that point, I enjoyed that fruit basket the most. Apples, oranges, bananas. (Pic below is from my wedding day taken at my mom and dad’s house in Zanesville… you can see the collection of medals and trophies. The fruit basket was such a nice change.)

So my dad got me started as a runner and I ran with it. Through Jr. High, High School and on into college. I ran Cross Country, then the mile and Two-Mile with the occasional 800 meter and 4×4 Relay in track. I did pretty good, was able to attain my high school record for the mile at 5:21. It’s important to add here that this was the “true” mile, at 1600m. Actual distance of a mile in meters is 1609, so ok, a tad bit short of an exact mile, but it was known as “the mile” because, it pretty much was a mile. I have only run the 1500m twice in high school and a handful of times in indoor track in college. Many schools and colleges have the 1500m today more so than the 1600m, so comparing times can be deceiving. I mostly ran the 1500m around 4:50 in High School.

I feel nowadays, my times are lame for high school records! But, back in my day I was sort of “fast” and I was named Athlete of the Year by the local newspaper for the 1997 – 1998 year. (And I get faster in college!) Running made for great teen years and it reinforced my love for outdoors!

Every summer my friends and I would set up tents with the team for Cross Country Camp at Dillon State Park and a few summers I went down into the Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, NC to train with Nike Running Camp. My first year there, although I ate something that was contaminated with some raw disgusting foul bacteria I don’t want to think of, resulting in a mean case of food poisoning and a trip to the hospital where they rehydrated my very weak body by connecting two IV’s simultaneously, the experience running in the lush hot humid mountains (after I recovered) was awesome. The scenery was spectacular, I loved every minute of it and that’s when I decided I wanted to run a marathon somewhere beautiful.

That idea was reinforced when I traveled to China to compete. I ran terribly, but loved to see such a culturally different country. I did my best to create a scrapbook with my pics from Beijing and Shanghai when I returned home and I’m so happy I did. At 17, you tend to take some, many a lot of important life events for granted.

College running was an eye opener; I fell in love with WVU’s hilly campus (and also a very attractive, charming and just smoking hot hockey player I met on the first day of school, the first class I attended). I joined their team and was left in the dust by my awesome teammates and the competition. The girls on my team were some of the best in the country, easily running sub-five miles during practice!! Race-day they clocked a 4:30 to 4:40-something mile! (True mile, not the 1500m run remember. If they were ever to run the 1500m, they’d be in the low 4:00’s! Smokin-Fast! ) To this day, the 800m, 1000m and the mile top five best times records are still held by some of the girls on the team I ran with back in ’98, ’99 and ’00! I was able to drop my best down to 5:03 for the mile and that was it. (My best 1500m time was a 4:32 in college if I remember correctly). Just goes to show, put yourself with the best, train with the best, compete with the best and you can see yourself be your best just the same! Surround yourself with positive, inspiring people. After pushing myself to get to a 5:21 mile in high school, I easily dropped nearly 20 seconds off the next year in college! And today, thinking back, if I had more knowledge of the right nutrition, I could have gone even faster!

We would run through the woods and along the Monongahela River. During cross country season, fall was stunning. I wish I took more pics of my time at that school. Our races took me to Penn State, Virginia Tech, NYC and to Boston. The campuses in Autumn were beautiful. That year in school I was committed to eating healthier and up to that point in my life, it WAS the healthiest I’d ever eaten. We were doing two-a-days, running in the mornings, speed workouts in the afternoon and some days the gym. It was intense.

The Summer after my freshmen year during a long run a terrible pain began in my knee and unbeknownst to me at that time, that pain would plague me for years to come. The pain persisted and running was a struggle through sophomore year. I didn’t know what the problem was until about 14 different doctor exams concluded it was IlioTibial Band Syndrome or ITB Syndrome. The only answer… stop running. So I did.  I transferred to Ohio State to study Atmospheric Science and Meteorology.

I still ran and participated in a few road races here and there, but competing was over. I was ok with it. I just wanted to go back to the days of running for fun. I lived with a bunch of fun girls in a super fun house on campus, my sisters and I ran often, for fun, and it was a great time! Maybe too much fun, but it was college so…

 

Below, Libit and I in Vail having so much fun after some long days of skiing! I couldn’t go skiing while running on the team at WVU. Well, my future husband and I did sneak away one weekend with some of the other hockey players to ski in Wisp. We had to sneak! It was fun to just be able to have fun!

I had the goal to run a marathon, like my dad. I used to run in feet of snow and 100 degree heat and now I loved it again rather than having it feel like a chore. I could go on ski trips with my sister without a coach being worried about injury. After graduating and moving to NJ in Spring of 2003 (to be with aforementioned very attractive, charming and smoking hot hockey player) I had plenty of time to train. I stopped drinking like a college girl (because I wasn’t a college girl anymore) and in August of 2004 I ran my first marathon, The SELF-TRANSCENDENCE Marathon at ROCKLAND STATE PARK in NY. It wasn’t and still isn’t a certified race. It was and still is a route consisting of six (yeah, 6!) loops around a lake. I did pretty good, felt fine. I could’ve run faster, I was just scared of the unknown. My final time was 4:01:25.

After that, it was on! I was going back to my home to hammer the flat COLUMBUS MARATHON in COLUMBUS, OHIO on OCTOBER 17 of that same year. Felt great! But… mile 18 had a familiar pain and there it was, the ITB. I stopped, took off my shoes, put them back on. Tried to find a different stride to run so it wouldn’t kill me. With the pain, I finished 3:53:40.

Because I had stopped, I felt if I gave my knee a break then do another the following year and combine it with travel, I could qualify for Boston and get to go places. My dad got me started in Marathons so this was the beginning of our running travels together! He was there the early morning hours in Columbus and so he, again with my mom, trekked off to Anchorage Alaska for the MAYOR’S MIDNIGHT MARATHON. It was in June, just in time for the Summer Solstice. My final time was 3:54:34. I felt great, no pain, but just couldn’t go faster. There were some pretty intense hills at the end. I now had a true love for running Marathons and was combining that with my love to travel.

That same year, 2005, I was working at WCBS in NYC. The morning Anchor was training for the NYC Marathon and she wanted to do a few races to prepare so we ran the Yonkers half marathon together and then the STEAMTOWN MARATHON in SCRANTON/FOREST CITY, PENNSYLVANIA in OCTOBER of 2005. This would be my fastest marathon at 3:48. Boston Qualifying for my age group at this time was 3:40. I was 8 minutes too slow; 26.2 / 8 minutes meant I needed to run 18.3 seconds faster each mile. Sounds so simple right? Run about 19 seconds faster than you already are… for 26 miles.

Throughout the first half of 2006 I was planning my wedding in Ohio while living in NJ. I was also working at WCBS, CBS News and all of the News12 Networks (Connecticut, Westchester, NJ and Long Island). Once summer arrived I was ready for another trip like Alaska! So I trained for a fall run and my Dad and I planned a trip to Bar Harbor Maine . It was perfect! The MOUNT DESERT ISLAND MARATHON, BAR HARBOR, MAINE in OCTOBER of 2006 I ran at 3:49 marathon. I felt great! I was eating good, running with my yellow lab, working solid. Just couldn’t get the time down. I needed to not only improve my healthy eating habits but I needed to get stronger. No skinny runner here, I needed strength.

Beginning earlier that fall, Dean Karnazes had started his 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. I wanted to run with him so I joined him for his 49th marathon at the Jersey shore; it was the Jersey Shore Marathon with Dean Karnazes on November 3rd 2006. It wasn’t certified, which after the very first marathon I did I decided I won’t ever run another marathon that isn’t certified, but I thought this would be cool because of what he was accomplishing. I treated it as a good long run to do. It was fall, it was gorgeous outside, I couldn’t get away to a destination marathon due to work so I drove down to Long Branch and joined the ultra runner. I can’t remember my exact time, but we all stayed with Dean and he finished at 4:09, so that was our pace. It was his 49^th consecutive marathon. The next day he finished the NYC marathon in 3:30 for marathon number 50! Can you find me in the pic? If you look at Dean in the middle, there’s two guys above him then me!

Into 2007, my Dad and I planned another trip, this time to see my sister in Nashville and to soak in some country love. My two sisters ran the half, I ran the full while my oldest sister, mom and dad came along for support! Oh, and my machine of a man husband who was that very attractive, charming and smoking hot hockey player came along as well, and him being a non-runner but loves a physical challenge, decided to jump in the half with no training or preparation. He stayed right with me until mile 11 where the race splits. Then finishes with a sub 2:00 time for 13.1 miles. The man is not of this world. This was an enormous race, larger than Columbus. It was the COUNTRY MUSIC MARATHON, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (APRIL 28, 2007) and we started out a little too slow which can happen with those big races, you’re practically walking at the start. My time was similar but just a bit slower at 3:52. It was HOT. Dangerously hot for a marathon. People were dropping all over the place, collapsing due to heat exhaustion. Later that same year Chicago’s marathon would be canceled mid-race due to excessive heat… in October.

Through the winter of 2007-2008 I had been working at News12 full-time. During my mornings, I needed something to do, so sometimes in the cold and ice, I trained. It wasn’t too bad of a winter overall so the training part was easy, but wouldn’t you know it, come race day it was cold! The OCEAN DRIVE MARATHON, CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY was MARCH 30, 2008 and we were freezing! By mile 21, my knee started to hurt. I felt fine endurance-wise but had to walk the last 5 miles coming in at 4:33. My dad thought we needed someone to come find me.

After an entire year of a break and committing to News12’s every need, I decided I wanted another trip, so Vegas with Dad it was RED ROCK CANYON MARATHON, LAS VEGAS, NV (MARCH 3, 2009) and this time my knee hurt by mile 15. I treated the rest of the run like a hike, the scenery was so beautiful. The race begins in the very early morning, just as the sun is rising, you’re running toward the red rock and the reflection is stunning. It’s this orange red with a brilliant hue, it was very much worth the chilly morning start. It was still a good time even if I had to walk a good 10 miles of the race. I had no choice, I couldn’t drop out, the race was out there in Red Rock Canyon. Nobody was really there to pick you up like in Tennessee or Columbus. I didn’t need picked up anyway, I wasn’t sick or injured, just couldn’t keep running with ITB. I finished at 5:16:08.83 After this marathon I was committed to eating better and getting my legs strong so my knee would feel better. And it worked!

I felt great throughout the year and by fall, finally, my absolute favorite marathon! The LAKE TAHOE MARATHON, LAKE TAHOE, CA (SEPTEMBER 27, 2009). Although my time isn’t great, well, it’s actually the 2^nd worst time ever, the race overall was fantastic! There’s a monster of an incline in the middle of it taking you from 5000ft to 6800ft, so I stopped many times to catch my breath and to take pictures. After running by Inspiration Point at mile 20 I was on pace to finishe around 4:00. At an elevation of 6000ft, I was surprised I was doing the same times I did in Columbus or Maine… until mile 22, I was well past Inspiration Point coming back down and it hit me, Altitude sickness! Gasping for air, woozy, dry heaving, I thought I was going to pass out. Deep slow breaths, stopped, walked regained myself and ability to at least walk. It was like there was a giant vacuum, like on SpaceBalls, just sucking up all the air to breath. A girl walks up besides me, better ability to speak than I, and says “Is this kicking your ass? I am getting my ass KICKED. I live in NJ, I can’t breathe.” Me, heavy breathing, bringing myself up from leaning on my knees… “yeea”. I finished at 4:56, almost an hour after what my pace was just five miles prior. My dad says “where’d you go? You get lost? You should have been here an hour ago!” Love that man.

That was the last marathon my dad was able to travel with me. He was battling Parkinson’s all those years and the turn he took from that September 2009 to the following Summer in 2010 was heartbreaking and very noticeable. In Lake Tahoe and then onto Yosemite he was able to go for hikes with me, at an elevation of about 5000ft. By August 2010 at my brother’s wedding, he could barely stand on the beach. He wasn’t able to travel much after that trip to Hilton Head. He continued to decline, and passed away August 2015. He met my daughter, then at four months old. I am so happy we had all those trips together, beginning at home in Columbus, then to Alaska, Maine, Tennessee, Cape May and Atlantic City NJ, Vegas Red Rock then Nevada and California. I cherish them all. Running Marathons is my “Fishing with my Dad”.

The above photos are from late September 2009 Tahoe and Yosemite. He looks great! Below was less than a year later, August of 2010 in Hilton Head. He doesn’t look too terrible but he had a bit of some rough moments on that trip.

He still managed to get some boogie boarding in though! My brother, my husband and dad.

You may or may not have read in my about me page and the Super Sick Stretch where I explain how my diet and lifestyle caused me to not be well enough, at all, to run. It wasn’t until 2013 when I was back on track and I was able to run the MAD MARATHON VERMONT MAD RIVER VALLEY, VERMONT in JULY. My dad wasn’t able to travel with me this time, he was too sick to leave home. So my husband and my son came to make it a great trip. My time wasn’t great. I was running rather casual and toward the end, although my knee wasn’t hurting that bad, I decided to back off my pace, finishing at 4:36:32. My husband, pushing my son in the jogger, met me at the covered bridge to run along with me for the last mile! It was a great race and a great trip! We stayed at Sugarbush Inn, and had some inspiration for design as we were in the planning stage of building our house! We loved the style!

I have plans to continue to run! Whether it be a full marathon again or half-marathons along the way, I’ll always enjoy the journey from the first step to the last .1 mile! Since starting this blogsite, I’ve completed the Walkway Half Marathon in Poughkeepsie in early June of 2017 and then although I had a goal to run the full Jackson Hole Marathon September of 2017, an injury led me to do the half instead. It was an amazing trip!! You can read all about it beginning on day 1 at Jackson Hole Half Marathon Day 1. I have so many on my bucket list and my goal is to finish one in each state, but while doing so having fun with my family, friends, and enjoying the area the race is located.