I Run These Towns

I don't think any of us will ever forget where we were on September 11, 2001 when we heard the news. I was in civil procedure class during my second year of law school. At 8:30 a.m. on that day I would have dramatically declared that it was the "worst thing ever." Fast forward 15 minutes for some perspective. My brother and I were sharing a car that week (mine was in the shop), and I walked outside where he was picking me up after class. I walked outside and blinked at the brilliant glare of the sun. I recall thinking that it was the most amazingly gorgeous day. The sky was perfect: azure and calm without a cloud. I slipped on my sunglasses and thought there was no way something so terrible could happen on such a flawless day. How is that possible? Although 9/11 was one of life's most dramatic experiences, I was thinking last weekend that one of the craziest things about life is how something so terrible can be happening at the same time as something wonderful. Last...

If I had a dollar for every comment I've gotten about my weight loss...well I'd have a lot of dollars. My favorites are "I wish I could lose 20 pounds" or "I need that problem". Not only did I not have 20 pounds to lose, but I was having the fittest spring/summer of my adult life. I felt amazing. My running times were off the charts (for me). Having two surgeries and losing 20 pounds was not in the cards. It's been really challenging to get back to a normal weight and feel like I'm no longer weak. I know, I know. #skinnygirlproblems. Here's the thing about being in shape: there's no magic formula. Every body type is different, and some people are just going to be naturally thinner or more muscular or more athletic. But it takes work. I left my house at 5:15 this morning to go to the pool. Do you think I wanted to wake up that early? I can assure you that I most certainly did not. Once I got in the pool, however, it felt awesome. I pushed to...

I have a confession to make that's really hard for me: I'm human. I know...you're shocked, right? It's hard for me to wrap my head around it. The last few months life has hit me with its best shot, and I'm having a hard time being motivated to run. It's not a feeling to which I am accustomed.  In general I'm a very driven person.  I work hard, I play hard, I run hard. Lately it's been work hard, crash at home and sleep a lot. One out of three isn't bad? I obviously had to decide to defer the New York Marathon for a year, but I didn't expect it would take so long to get back into a workout groove. To be honest I'm still struggling to get back into a normal life groove, and working out has taken a back seat. Last week I ran once and swam once. I get it - it's better than nothing. But given that my intention is to run four days a week and swim 1-2, I'm way behind. I took running clothes to West Virginia last weekend when we went to ...

I once had a boyfriend tell me he fell in love easily. My first thought was...thanks? So you love me, but you love easily so I shouldn't be impressed? I'm being only partly facetious...I am pretty loveable. But I was thinking of this interaction as I'm finishing Charles Montgomery's Happy City . I've already told you my all-time favorite statistic from that book: for a single person, "exchanging a long commute for a short walk to work has the same effect on happiness as finding a new love." I'm polyamorous in my love for cities, and I'm singularly focused in my love for running. I fall in love with cities and running routes easily and often . This makes me want to cut the boyfriend who made that statement some slack. I remember visiting Washington, DC as a teenager, and I just fell so hard. I couldn't imagine there was a city anywhere as cool as that one. Even after all of my travels in the 20 (yikes) years since I first went to DC, I st...

Last week I talked about the difficulty I'm having moving at a snail's pace.This week I would take snail's pace over running on empty. I'm sitting in my living room taking a break from reading legislation while a plumber works on the two toilets upstairs. Since I arrived home (almost four hours ago - this plumbing situation is a whole thing), I've been guzzling caffeine like it's going out of style. I've read through more than 100 pages of proposed legislation which could account for my lethargy, but I think it's something else. It's that drive that usually keeps me going. Today it's wearing me out. I've got a crazy week at work, and sometimes being able to sit down at home and read through emails and legislation without distraction is perfect. The problem is there are tons of distractions here - the drilling upstairs in my bathrooms and a barking Portuguese Water Dog who likes to alert me any time someone walks by. Our renters emailed with...

My boss likes to ask people this question whenever we interview someone in our office, and as I've thought about it, my answer has continually evolved over the years. I've already discussed the changes I'd like to see in the City of Lansing, but I don't think those necessarily require a magic wand. I think they're sensible suggestions that just make sense. As a result I won't include them in my "magic wand" answer. I will say, however, if another new sub shop goes into the prime real estate on the corner of Michigan and Washington Avenues, my head will explode. But I digress. If I could wave a magic wand in the City of Lansing, I'd eliminate surface parking - seriously pretty much all of it. Street parking is great. Garage parking I can live with if there is first floor retail (and I still won't love it), but the amount of surface parking in the Downtown Lansing is out of control. There are vast tracts of land filled with asphalt and cars, ...

If you know me at all or have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know slow and I are not friends. I don't do slow. My recovery from the surgeries in July has been much slower than I expected, and I don't handle slow well (nor can I handle not being in control). Last week I woke up and realized I feel relatively good. For the most part I feel back to normal (with the exception of bi-weekly visits to have my blood thinner levels checked to guard against another clot...which is quite annoying).  Life is slowly getting back to normal...slow being the operative word. I started running again a few weeks ago, and I'm so slow. This morning I ran a few miles, and I needed several walk breaks. I'm agonizingly slow.  In a year where I've shattered personal bests and been in great physical condition, being this slow is frustrating. My mind is ready to run seven minute miles. My body? Not so much. I'm trying to be patient and realize that I'm starting ...

I love Gone With the Wind . It's my favorite book and favorite movie. Scarlett O'Hara is the most complex heroine - strong, brave, fearless. She will do anything (including be extraordinarily selfish) to get whatever she wants. She goes after the men she loves. She protects her home. She's both extraordinary and awful. She's a drama queen. I love everything about her. Obviously Scarlett is a fictional character created by the brilliant Margaret Mitchell and portrayed beautifully by Vivian Leigh in the film. I first read the book in middle school, and I've been fascinated by Scarlett ever since. Here is a woman who not only goes after what she wants, but she does so while being brash and yet still feminine. She goes after love and loves passionately. Who wouldn't want a relationship as tumultuous and passionate as the one Scarlett shares with Rhett Butler? Things are obviously different for women in 2014 than they were during the Civil War, but it remains the...

I love the South. I love it so much that I can barely stand it. I think in another life I was surely a southern belle, wearing hoop skirts, living on a plantation and fanning myself in the humidity. In this life I still enjoy heat, humidity, a cute dress, SEC football, sweet iced tea and bourbon. This is a combination of things that are not properly appreciated here in the Midwest. I think I might live in the wrong place. At any rate we decided the best way to spend the last weekend of summer was to head to Atlanta, Georgia to see my West Virginia Mountaineers take on SEC/national powerhouse and number two ranked Alabama at the Georgia Dome. The game had a lot of nearly heart stopping moments (which I'll get to in a minute), but first let's talk Atlanta. And sweet tea. We had a very early flight out of Lansing on Friday morning (also my 36th birthday), rolling into ATL before 10 am. We've all heard the horror stories of Atlanta traffic, and I was pleased to discover tha...