Stepping into new shoes

This blog is a new endeavor for me, a way to share all my running adventures without boring my non-running friends by clogging up their Facebook feeds.

A little about me to start, for those of you that may not know me in person.  I am a full-time nurse, wife, and mother of two boys, a 3-year old and a 7-month old.  I am also in grad school.  I started running about 8 years ago because I felt that as a nurse, I should model a healthy lifestyle.  Prior to choosing this major lifestyle change, I was a fat child that then went on to struggling with both anorexia and bulimia in my late teens.  I also picked up the bad habit of smoking when I was 16, and continued until the night before I graduated nursing school in 2005.

When I first started running in 2005, I just wanted some form of exercise that would keep me healthy and engaged.  I had no intention of becoming a "runner", as I was equally enamored with weights and actually contemplated doing some fitness competitions.  What changed was the thrill I discovered when I tackled a new distance; this is what lead me to become the runner I am today.  I started with a 5k race that winter, and realized that I was a decent competitor.  After that, I decided to see if I could cross off doing a marathon from my bucket list, which happened fall of 2006.  It was a few years until I would tackle this distance again.

In 2009, I became a mother for the first time and needed to get back in shape after allowing myself to gain 50 pounds during the course of my pregnancy.  Rather than struggling with fitting runs into my new schedule, I found that needing to schedule everything ahead of time, rather than just winging it worked wonders for my running.  I found a new solace in being out by myself, recharging myself to deal with the other facets of my life.

Today, I have morphed into a hard-core mostly trail runner that relishes each new distance that I'm tackling.  Prior to the birth of my second son in June of 2012, I had tackled my first two 50ks and felt very strong doing so.  I actually raced a 50k very hard the beginning of October 2011, felt great, then found out 4 days later that baby number two was on the way.  I made a decision at that point to stick to roads for the duration of my pregnancy, for fear of falling on trail.  This is when I realized the trail was calling me more than the road.  I took 9 days off after having my little guy and ramped right back up on my training, completing a marathon less than 6 months after giving birth.

2013:  My training has continued to grow and improve, and I have the most demanding race schedule of my life for this year.  Here are some of the highlights, although there are many shorter races that I won't bother to list:

*1/20/13: Ugly Mudder 7.2 mile trail race
*2/24/13: Chilly Cheeks 7.3 mile trail race
*4/6/13:  Garden Spot Marathon
*4/20/13: Hyner View 50k
*5/26/13: Dirty German 50m
*7/6/13:  Finger Lakes 50m
*8/11/13: Half Wit half marathon trail race
*9/1/13:  Labor Pains 12-hour endurance race
*9/28/13: Bald Eagle Megatransect
*10/2/13: Blues Cruise 50K
*10/21/13: Hershey half marathon
*11/10/13: Harrisburg marathon
*11/17/13: Philadelphia marathon.

Some of the dates are guesses, as the registrations are not yet open, based upon when they took place in 2012.