I Run These Towns

It is unfathomable that I am old enough to remember events from 20 years ago. Let's be honest - I remember events from 30 years ago too. Ouch. Twenty years ago I graduated from high school. Twenty freaking years . That's insane. Twenty years ago I took my tour of West Virginia University. I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else, and it shaped who I am in a significant way. I loved being at WVU. I bleed old gold and blue to this day, and I am a rabid Mountaineer fan. My years in Morgantown were so fun. That's why it remains, to this day, my happy place. My husband's cousin (and my son's godfather) got accepted to WVU and wanted to do a tour. We happily brought him to Morgantown for the weekend so I could show off one of my favorite places in the world. The city has changed tremendously since I started there in 1996. In a lot of ways the surrounding community is unrecognizable from the way it was 20 years ago, but the campus has remained relatively the same. G...

I'm often asked what is the best part about being a parent. It's been an incredible 16 months filled with new discoveries, and seeing the world through my son's eyes lets me notice things in a unique way. The best part of being a mom is discovering the joy in every day. In the words of John Mellencamp: "Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone." In particular these middle years, 30s and 40s (and maybe older) are challenging. Your 20s is all about new challenges : c ollege, falling in love, the start of a career , buying houses, pets, children. It's a revolving door of challenges and opportunities. By the time you're in your 30s you've kind of settled into life. I've been married for seven years, have had a great job for eight years, live in my dream house and have an amazing child. Life on paper (and in actuality) is pretty amazing. But unlike my 20s there's not the obvious or necessarily exciting "what's next...

I've been pretty open about my running funk of late. It's been a real struggle to get motivated. Late last year my friend and I registered for the Gazelle Girl Half Marathon. At the time it was months away and during my post-marathon running hiatus. It seemed like it was so far away. As it crept closer I kept thinking I need to do some long training runs. I was doing my short tempo runs for 5k training, but I kept putting it off. I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago a few weeks ago, and then didn't run for two weeks. That 8k (4.97 miles) is the farthest I've run since my last half marathon in November. I had zero business running 13.1 miles. On Saturday morning my husband and I decided it would be fun to head to Grand Rapids for the morning to pick up our race packets. We walked around downtown, ate breakfast, and then headed to the race expo. I'll be honest - the race expo was terrible. There were so many people crammed into a small space. Luckily we'd...

I've been skimming back through blogs from the last few years, and although there have been a lot of life changes (a new baby, a new house, new jobs, losing our dads) I was always falling in love. I was discovering new cities to love, running new races, spending time with my friends and family. Even when things were tough I was still falling in love. In the last six months or so I've stopped falling in love. I've stopped seeing the world as someone who falls in love easily and started being on autopilot. While we're still traveling, I've not been running as much. I've been checking things off the to do list, even things that are supposed to be fun, instead of living in the moment. Love, or at least the art of falling, has been elusive. In early 2014 I wrote a blog post about falling in love easily and often. I feel wistful when I read it for the easy passion with which I penned that blog. I was coming off the high of falling in love with Marquette, Michigan...

After an idyllic weekend in Chicago my husband and I came home to chaos. When I landed in Detroit my mother-in-law (who was watching our son) texted me that both she and the baby were sick. They both had a stomach bug, and she hadn't told us while we were gone so we wouldn't worry (which was extremely considerate). I picked up my needy little guy and headed home assuming he probably had a quick bug and was on the mend.  Over the next week Norovirus raged through our home making my son, my husband and me all very, very sick. The week is a blur. On Wednesday, my sickest day and before my husband got sick, I don't even remember the day. I barely left bed. I knew I was sick because I didn't even care what was happening in our house. Usually I want to be with my husband and son, and I didn't even have the energy to be curious about why my son was squealing with joy downstairs.  By the time the weekend rolled around we were all starting to be on the mend, but we wer...

I've registered for three races in Chicago. In 2011 I registered for the Hot Chocolate 15k , and I ended up having hernia surgery. I cheered my friend on during the race and shopped a lot. In 2013 I registered for the Soldier Field 10 miler, and we were matched with a birthmother who was due that weekend (the situation did not work out). Seemed like a good idea at the time to cancel the trip.  My husband was asked to be on a panel at an event in Chicago, so we decided to head to Chicago for a babyless weekend of fun and frivolity. On Friday evening we dropped our little dude off at Grandma's and flew to Chicago from Detroit. It was after 9 pm central time when we arrived. As we were in the plane I said to my husband, "As soon as we get there we're going to..." and at the time I said "drink" he said "sleep". Needless to say I won. We dropped bags at the hotel and got a (very) late dinner at Miller's Pub near our hotel. Fried cheese curd...