I started running when I was a sophomore in high school, going out for the cross-country team never having run further than house-to-house in my neighborhood as a kid. I wasn’t an athlete by any means–I was skinny and weak, not very coordinated, and not very competitive by nature.
I was blessed to have an inspirational coach who was caring but tough—he didn’t drive us to meet his standards and expectations of performance, he made us set our own standards and push to exceed them. So by my senior year, I finally internalized everything he tried to teach and I found that inner drive to achieve.
When I finally got back into running after Alex was born, running became a staple of my life. It was stress relief, it was the excitement of competition. I’m not an Olympian by any means, but I strove for placing in my age group in the smaller races and shooting for PRs or my best effort in the big ones.
In 2013, I decided that I would go for that ultimate goal–a marathon, which I did in just a few seconds over 4 hours, thus driving me to continue to set personal goals (under 3-hours, 3:30, etc.). I was a runner for life at that point.
Following that, I was invited to coach an elementary school running club for 4th and 5th grade boys, as there was a girls’ club modeled on “Girls on the Run” but no group for boys. Alex joined the group, and although Max was only in 1st grade, he was with us by default due to no alternative child care. The running bug then bit them then.
We’re a running family–each of us with our own goals, drive and ambition, but all of us having experienced that feeling of breaking a PR, of finishing a distance, and of learning how running is a model for a good life.
Aside from that, I’m a marketing and non-profit professional with three wonderful (running) boys. I’m a Freemason and have previously been an elected public official. I grew up in Manistee and still live in Michigan, but have lived in Indiana and Miami, Florida as well. I’m a proud MSU Spartan and love to run, cook, develop online media and inspire people to achieve their goals.