One beautiful morning in January 2013, when I took my two-year-old son to his doctor’s appointment, I decided to step on the scale. 292 pounds, WOW!! I was huge, larger than I have ever been.

As a former college lacrosse player, I was shocked how heavy I was, so I decided to do something about it. Diet and running were going to be my new hobby! 

The only issue was, I couldn’t run more than a quarter mile before I was gassed, so baby steps it was!

It took me about two weeks and a regimen of run three minutes, walk one minute, to be able to run one full mile without stopping. I was proud that I accomplished that.

Then I decided to try and run a 5K. After completing the 5K, one of my friends smartly suggested I do a half marathon. I thought that was the stupidest idea ever, so I signed up for the Frederick Half, which was May 5, 2013.

At the time, my parents were in Costa Rica celebrating their wedding anniversary. On May 2, I got a call from my mom, who informed me that my father had passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack. I was devastated and not sure what to do. I thought to myself, my dad would have wanted me to run, so run I did! I completed my 1st half marathon in under 2 hours and 3 minutes.  I was impressed with my finish time but knew I might have had a little extra help from my dad.

For the next seven years, I averaged about 300 to 400 miles a year; I would do two half marathons a year. Then we had the “pandy”. In the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic I ran, and I also ate, and I ate a lot again. I decided, not again with the weight gain, so back to dieting and running more miles I went.

I signed up for a full marathon in the fall of 2021. I trained hard, got thinner, and ran a 4:08 marathon. I was happy, but I said that I was never doing that again.

In 2021, I ended up running over 1,500 miles.

2022 was another chapter in my running career, when I got involved with the Steeps. My friend, Megan, kept bugging me to come to a group run. I told her, “I can’t talk while running!”, boy was I wrong. I can’t shut up now while running. I joined the half marathon training group in the spring of 2022 and the full marathon group in the fall. I ended up doing two marathons in 2022. The second one was in Philadelphia, where I ran a 4:03 time in 33-degree weather, with 30 miles-per-hour wind gusts. It sucked, but I finished.

In 2022, I ran over 1,800 miles.

I sit here, 10 years later, grateful for the progression of my running journey. This past year has been my favorite! FSRC makes me look forward to running with my new friends, who have the same mental disorder I do — running!

I look forward to volunteering more of my time this year, to give back what was given to me.

My main goal this year is not to worry about my time during races and just enjoy racing. Oh yeah, and run 2,023 miles!