I Run These Towns

I'm not a native Michigander, and there is one thing I find completely fascinating about this state- the east/west divide.  Those who are from the southeast part of the state (i.e., Detroit and all suburban communities) totally gravitate towards SE Michigan. Those who are from West Michigan spend time at Lake Michigan and tend to head west on the weekends. These people are also often Cubs fans versus Tigers fans (a sacrilege in my house).  My husband is from the Detroit suburb of Livonia, so if we are heading somewhere for the weekend, there is a 99.9 percent chance it is somewhere east - to visit family, to go to a sporting event or concert, head to a cultural institution (we maintain memberships at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and the Detroit Institute of Art), or hanging out with friends.  We've been to a few concerts in Grand Rapids, but we've never once, in the entire seven years we've been together, gone to West Michigan to the beach. We've gone for two...

This weekend my husband and I ran the Run for Fame 5k and 10k with proceeds going to the Lansing Sports Hall of Fame which includes sports greats like Magic Johnson...and other people. It was a bit of a last minute decision. I needed a race boost to start getting into marathon training, and my husband needed another 5k to keep him motivated. This was the perfect race for both of us. The race began in front of the Lansing Center on Michigan Avenue. It was a relatively small race, but that was nice given that it was largely run as an out and back on the narrow Lansing River Trail.   I love the River Trail. It's 13ish miles of fantastic trail that is perfect for training. I do most of my long runs on the trail, so this felt like a normal training run with several hundred of my closest friends. After jockeying around at a bit of a tight start the race the crowd thinned out as we got to the trail. The race was relatively quiet (the river trail isn't conducive to lots of spec...

Last week I was fortunate enough to visit Chicago, one of my fav cities, for a National League of Cities conference. For those of you not familiar with NLC it's the nationwide organization that represents cities in Washington, DC. It's essentially the organization I work for at a national level, and it's pretty cool. Their conferences are always very informative, and getting to go to Chicago is just gravy. My co-workers and I decided to begin our first morning in Chicago with a City Running Tour . I've been following City Running Tours for a while on Facebook and Twitter and have been dying to give one a try. They are tours that point out sites in various cities - while running. We signed up for the Grant Park tour which started in Millennium Park (at the Bean) just near our hotel. Our group starting our tour at the Bean If you follow weather at all you'll recall that last week was a scorcher in the Midwest.  The temps topped out in the 90s with extraordin...

I've shied away from fundraising for seven years. I ran my first ever race, the Nike Women's Half Marathon, for Team in Training (for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society). It was an amazing experience, but the stress of training to run my first race along with the stress of raising money was overwhelming. I've continued to be an avid runner in the last seven years but had not ventured back into fundraising.  That changes now. I discovered Alex's Lemonade Stand , an incredible charity that raises money for childhood cancer, through unlikely sources - the Food Network's Chopped All-Star Challenge (celebrity chef and Chopped judge Alex Guarnaschelli competed for them) and CBS Sunday mornin g.  The story of Alex Scott, this incredible brave and selfless little girl, is one that tugs at the heart strings. It's also one that inspires me to venture back into raising money for a fantastic cause. In October I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon as part of Team L...

Living in this crazy digital world it's so easy to be constantly chained to our smart phones or tablets or laptops. I could let myself easily be sucked in every night to constantly checking Facebook and Twitter and email (both personal and work). I'm attached to my cell all day during work, and when I get home I make a conscious effort (on most nights) to put my phone on its charger upstairs in our bedroom and leave it. The ringer is on vibrate, and if you call me in the evenings it's very unlikely you will get in touch with me.  This is a very deliberate decision on my part. I love the internet. I love checking to see what my friends and family are up to on Facebook, scrolling through Twitter to check sports scores and news stories. I would say that 95 percent of the news I receive I get through Facebook and Twitter. I very rarely visit news websites, and I next to never watch the news on TV. Despite that (or maybe because of it) I also recognize the need to walk away fr...

My husband and I decided we would celebrate America's Independence Day by celebrating our right to leave the country, so we headed to Montego Bay, Jamaica for a much needed getaway.  It's hard for us to disconnect. We are the typical busy, always working, political couple checking emails/texts/Facebook/Twitter on a regular basis.  We do a relatively good job of trying to disconnect when we're at home together in the evenings, but work and social media tends to creep in anyway.  One of our favorite things about heading to another country is that we don't have (and refuse to get) international cell phone plans. Our phones were turned off from the time we left the United States until we got back. It was glorious. We do a lot of busy weekend trips for races and to visit family, and we decided we needed a real rest and a legit disconnect. Our travel agent found us a great resort in Montego Bay, so we booked a relatively last-minute trip.  We've done a few all-inclusive...

Last summer , while participating in the Playmakers race series, I discovered my favorite Lansing-area race: Max's Race .  Max was only seven months old when he was diagnosed bacterial spinal meningitis, and he passed away from complications of that condition at age six.  I did not know Max, and yet this story compels me to run this race.  The story is a heartbreaking one, and yet Max's race feels like a celebration. It's a race to honor this little boy and raise money for causes hoping that no other family has to suffer this kind of heartbreak. This was only my husband's second 5k, and I was excited for him to run this great race.  The course winds through his alma mater, Michigan State.  We started at the beautiful MSU Auditorium and were cheered on by the MSU cheerleaders and Sparty. It is a nice size race, but it's also not too large. Unlike last year there was plenty of cloud cover, and the air felt almost cool for the end of June. A beautiful mornin...