I Run These Towns

Last month Hillary Clinton was under fire for not informing the American public that she had pneumonia. She was called "weak". In what was not America's best moment we vilified a woman for contracting an illness that any of us could get. Apparently getting sick makes one "weak". I'd say sticking to a brutal schedule with pneumonia actually makes her a badass, but then again, this is coming from a sick person.  I felt a lot of empathy toward Hillary because I know what it's like to be sick and feel like you have to hide it. I truly believe if we want to succeed women don't have the luxury of being sick. I would say this also applies to any person with a chronic illness. Moms don't get sick days. To keep up in the professional world we're expected to suck it up or be seen as weak. In Notorious R.B.G.: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg , it's noted that RBG was never gone from the bench while battling cancer. She quickly went back ...

I've had a rough year of barely running. I've written a lot about it, and I've tried not to make excuses. I simply haven't done the work, and I haven't been motivated. Period. It's been health issues/grief issues/plain lack of motivation. But somehow this past weekend, in a half marathon I had no business running, I found my motivation in the driving rain on Detroit's Belle Isle. I registered for the Detroit Domestic Half Marathon on January 11, 2016. I was still in my serious running hiatus after New York, and I thought having races on the calendar would help. Two of our good friends were also running, and it would be my girlfriend's first half marathon. It's always such an awesome thing to share someone's first race with them, so I was really excited to register. Fast forward ten months and the year has not gone as expected. Instead of my achieving my original goal of breaking 20 minutes in the 5k I ended up in a Crohn's downward spir...

I started this year with a serious speed goal: break 20 minutes in the 5k. I knew it was a really challenging goal, but challenges are my favorite. I started the year by shaving 41 seconds off my PR at the Super Bowl 5k. That PR still stands: 23:09. I knew taking another three minutes off would be tough, but my training was going really well. It was going well until it wasn't. I started having dizzy spells and health issues at the beginning of May and spent a surprise week in the hospital. All of a sudden I knew running a 5k at that speed was unlikely particularly when my GI doctor prescribed several months of steroids. The goal changed to simply getting back into running. The problem with getting faster is it increases my expectations. My PR of 26:00 stood from 2011 until the spring of 2014. I couldn't break 26 minutes to save my life, and once I did it's been a huge disappointment the few times I've gone over it. I've run 20 half marathons and have only broken...

Very rarely do we have the luxury of pushing the reset button. It's hard because as spouses, parents, family members, friends and colleagues there are always so many obligations. I hate the word "obligations" because it implies something unpleasant, but even when they are things one loves to do the calendar fills up and it can get overwhelming. I had a sabbatical planned in August, and I was hoping to hit the reset button. I ended up having free time earlier and had nearly three months off before starting a new job this week. While at first it was a shock to the system to not have the calendar filled with work, it turned out to be magical. For three months I got to do whatever I wanted to do. I spent time in Portland, Oregon and a week in both West Virginia and Virginia visiting family. I spent afternoons by the pool and read dozens of books. I walked my son to daycare and then went for long runs. I got groceries during the middle of the day and took naps.  I looked f...

Contrary to popular belief I am not opposed to casual attire. When I'm done with work or socializing or errands or anything that has me in front of other humans, it's about 2.3 seconds before I'm in pajama pants, a t-shirt and my hair in a headband. I love to be scrubby around my house. I also think casual has its place in the world for casual events: lunch, running errands, hanging out with friends. Where I have problems is what casual means and why we've gotten to a place where people dress like total slobs in public. Stop the madness. Let's talk about one that should be easy: the casual workplace. I HATE the casual workplace, and the only reason I hate it is because humans can't be trusted to dress responsibly. (Please note I'm referring only to the corporate/business workplace. Obviously there are lots of jobs where one does not or should not dress in a suit.) A few weeks ago Forbes published an article titled "Why You Should Dress 25 Percent Bet...

I'm convinced that terrible things almost always happen on beautiful days. Obviously there are exceptions, but maybe when something awful happens and you walk outside into a beautiful day it hurts a little less. Maybe it makes one appreciate life a little more. I'm not sure. While watching 9/11 coverage last weekend I was reminded of how achingly perfect that morning was. A few years ago I blogged about a death in my dearest friend's family, again happening on a stunningly perfect day. It's been 11 months since I lost my dad. When he was in the hospital for a week before his surgery, the weather was flawless. The day of his surgery and days after were cold and rainy, but I don't really remember them. When I think back to that awful time nearly a year ago I think of those brilliant days before he had surgery. This photo of my dad and my son in his last healthy days makes me lose it every time.  I am a lot like my dad in many ways, and one of them is to not d...

I've often blogged about my affinity for Norfolk, Virginia, a city I feel was my first grown up home. I've lived in Michigan for a decade, and it still doesn't feel the same way to me as Norfolk. As our plane descended into Norfolk International Airport two weekends ago, I teared up seeing the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, the world's largest Navy base and East Beach from the air. The only time I cry about Michigan is deep in the bitter cold of winter. And it's not a sentimental cry. I got to spend an entire week with my siblings, sibs-in-law, niece and nephews (including meeting my newest one who's only three weeks old). Generally my trips to Virginia are over long weekends, and it's been a long time since I've gotten some serious quality time there. The last time I visited, nearly two years ago, we'd just found out we were matched with our son's birth mother. I knew life was about to change forever, and that visit had a desperate quality to i...