Why I Started Running:
I have been swimming, biking, hiking and running to some extent ever since I can remember. I had never considered triathlon, and didn’t know there was such a thing as people who ran longer than 26.2 miles. In my early to mid-twenties, I struggled with depression, gained a bunch of weight (I believe my peak weight was just over 200 pounds and I’m 5’4 1/2 which I like to round to 5’5″). At 25, I hit rock bottom and almost successfully took my own life. I wound up in the ICU with my Dad holding my hand and crying. It was somewhere around there, that my psychiatrist figured out what was causing the depression, and took me off all of the medications. He told me, “Exercise is the best medication.”
At 27, I began to lose the weight via Weight Watchers and had started C25K again, raced some OCR races and started cycling century charity rides again. I had lost 80 pounds, enjoying competing and the outdoors again, and I stopped going to therapy. A friend of mine teaching body sculpting classes did the MS bike rides too, but she also did sprint triathlons. I turned to Jo-Ellen and asked her what it would take to do one of those triathlon thingies? She told me to get in the pool again, and sign up. I did just this… and I got to the run, and had to walk /run. I wasn’t DFL, but pretty close to it. I got the pity claps.
It was after that triathlon that I joined a meet-up group for triathlon. Someone planted the seed in my head to do a half Ironman. I couldn’t wrap my head around the distances. So at the end of 2012, I signed up for my first half Ironman at Timberman 70.3. By early 2013, I had run my first and second full marathons at Hyannis and Boston. My friend Jo-Ellen hooked me up with a charity bib for $500, so I couldn’t turn it down. Besides…I had grown up in Newton, MA, right on the course. The only thing was, I was on Hereford making the turn onto Boylston as the second bomb went off….. I’ll never forget that day.
It was around that time that I ran into another athlete by the name of John Bergstrom. I hit him up after I found out about his incredible weight loss story of losing 100 pounds and doing Ironman Texas in 2012 (the year we started talking). I learned how nerdy and similar he was to me…and well, after internet stalking him for a few months (or so he claims), I wrangled him and he eventually became what is now known as #husbandcreature on social media. He signed up for Timberman as well, and then encouraged me to sign up for Lake Placid in 2014. We went up to Placid to volunteer in 2013 and the rest is history.
I’ve now started 3 full Ironmans, but finished 2. Raced countless marathons (including Boston again in 2014), raced tons of 70.3s, half marathons, and shorter triathlons. John and I share a passion for hiking and backpacking. Of the 3 sports in triathlon, running has always been my favorite. I started working with Coach Nick Cumbo of Ascension Multisport, and the results were incredible. In 2017, I got roped into ultra running by a bunch of friends and they thought that I’d be good at it because I loved the trails and already did long distance races. I signed up for a 50K and 60 miler that year. The following year I signed up and completed several 50Ks, a 55 miler, 100K and my first 100 miler. Over the past couple of years, I’ve decided that ultra running was more me than triathlon (although I do enjoy it). So in 2019, I finished one more full Ironman and decided that I was going to go back and hit the trails hard. I am now in for the Leadville 100 in 2020, my second 100 miler. We moved to Colorado, so I can train at altitude. Why not………???
My Favorite Moments / Biggest Accomplishments:
Running Boston Marathon 2013 (It forever changed me after the bombings)
My first 70.3 at Timberman in 2013
My first Ironman at Lake Placid 2014
My first 50K at Pineland Farms 2017
My first 100 Miler in 2018 at Javelina Jundred
Future Goals:
Ghost Train Ultra – 30 or 45 miles (haven’t decided yet) – October 19, 2019
Stories Ultra 12 hour race Feb 8, 2020
Desert Rats 50K April 18, 2020
Leadville Trail Marathon June 13, 2020
Silver Rush 50 Miler July 11, 2020
Leadville 100 August 22-23, 2020