AboutMe

College student in the NorthEast studying physics and going pre-med.  Stress is a way of life, but I have running to mellow me out.  Pretty much love anything bamf (*cough*Jack Bauer*cough*).  I hate the cold and question why I’m still in NewEngland.  That plus and love of all things country means I should move South.  Like tomorrow 🙂

Ran my first marathon (3rd May 2009) and ran it really well and qualified for BOSTON. I’m super excited.  But first a bit as to why I got into running.

I grew up somewhat nonathletic.  I was the kid that would rather read a book during recess than play four-square (anyone else remember that? Or am I just dating myself here?) but I had parents that would not let me continue that way for long.  I was forced to try out for the middle school basketball team and was very surprised when I actually made it.  I had never touched a basketball before! Granted I was 5’9″ in 5th grade so I towered over everyone when I got to middle school.

I also went into swimming during middle, and this was on my own accord as I loved being in the water, and eventually I was forced to join the middle school track team.  Totally wasn’t my favorite thing to do but hey.  In case you were wondering I was a sprinter.

During high school I joined the volleyball team (and we made it to the state tourney for the first time in school history holllleeeerrr), continued to play basketball (and had to drop swimming because it was also a winter sport and loved my AAU team wayyyy more than the school one), and intermittently ran track.  I only did it my freshman and junior years and was a sprinter as a frosh (and a damn good one, #2 girl on the team) and a distance runner junior year (I was decent but at this point I really hated track itself but all my friends were distance kids so I made the leap).

I wish I could say it was here that I loved running or fell in love with it but it really wasn’t.  I felt that I was being pushed by my parents into all these things.  And I was, if I didn’t play a varsity sport I was grounded. Lame I know.  Senior year, after my last volleyball and basketball seasons ever, I quit the track team.  For certain reasons my parents didn’t really pay much attention to this.  But one of my friends quit with me and we began to run after school everyday.  I’m sure that we were doing the same things as the track team but it felt different.  It felt free. I think this was when I realized that running was fun and something I actually wanted to do.

This didn’t mean that I wanted to join any team.  On the contrary, I knew (and still know) that I don’t like people telling me what I “have to do”.  (As if you couldn’t tell that from my posts ha).  I like creating my own scheme because I get to push myself in my way.  This does sometimes mean that I overdo it.  And it doesn’t mean that I shun other people’s thoughts.  Just the opposite, as a really competitive athlete I tend to take everything anyone says really seriously be it advice, criticism, critique, what have you.

After high school I took a gap year and then went to college, running all the way.  I entered my first race (half marathon) in the fall of 2007 and got bitten.  I ran a 10k and another half that spring each time proving to myself that I love to race and that I am fast (hopefully that doesn’t sound cocky or something!).  After running a 10k in the fall of ’08 I decided to tackle the marathon and ran my first one in May of ’09.  As I wrote above I qualified for Boston. Wicked exciting!

So that’s about where I stand.  The fall of ’09 held some great races (the race reports which can be found under the race reports tab on the right)  and I’m really looking forward to becoming a more experienced racer in the future.  I can’t wait to smash some PRs 🙂

Questions? Comments? Email me at: MarathonMaidenRunner@gmail.com