Birthdate: 3.31
Birth Place: Jerseyville, Illinois
Family: Husband: Aaron, Children: Toby, 20, Leo, 18, Frankie, 14, and Rose, 10
Personal strengths: Positive, Friendly, Enthusiastic, Hard worker
Personal weaknesses: Can sometimes say things that wish could take back (cue vulnerability hangover)
Reason for joining Northstar: After starting my running journey in February 2022 and training by myself for the Twin Cities marathon, I was bored, and was looking for some friends to run with. After the marathon, I think I was less intimidated to join a run club. So here I am! Also, since I am new to the Twin Cities (moved in May 2020), I love learning all the routes we do and discovering new places to run. I love running with my Northstar friends!!
Favorite running shoes: Brooks Adrenaline
Favorite place to run: The Chain of Lakes
Running Goals:
- Short-term: Enjoy my running and maybe get faster
- Long-term: Run another marathon with a focus on the joy of running
Proudest Running Achievement: Finishing my first marathon in October 2022.
Typical training week, a month or two before a major race: I usually run three to four times a week, and do CrossFit two to three times a week. I do long runs on Sunday with Northstar. I started doing speed work after getting my first training plan from Brian, and that was fun and I felt really powerful and strong after!
Running idol: Hmm, not sure I have one. I read a profile of Martinus Evans who started the Slow AF Run Club, and I really enjoyed it - I want to read his book.
Injuries: My knees hurt when I was training for Twin Cities, and I tweaked my knee doing CrossFit before Grandmas, so I need to be more careful of my CrossFit workouts leading into a race.
PRs: (according to my Garmin)
- Marathon PR: 4:59:08
- Half-Marathon PR: 2:16:34
- 25K PR: Not sure
- 10 Mile PR: Not sure
- 10K PR: 1:00:29
- 5K PR: 28:16
- 1 Mile PR:
Non-running Hobbies: Reading or Listening to Books, Playing games, Hanging out with my family, CrossFit, My Peloton bike, Walking around Lake Harriet, Hanging out with friends
Anything else interesting you'd like to share?
My next race will be the Twin Cities Loony Challenge, and I am looking forward to my first race with my husband when we do the TC 10 miles on Sunday.
Race recap of Grandma's:
My Grandma's race recap is good news and bad news. The good news is that I am now officially a runner, and the bad news I am now officially a runner! Ha! I had set pace times with Brian to try to hit 4:50, and I was doing great the first several miles, then I stopped to go to the bathroom, and everything went downhill from there. I also kept thinking "Well, it will be flat soon, everyone says it is flat going into Duluth" and I never got to a point where I felt like it was flat. Ann told me it wasn't flat, but I should have done more work reviewing the elevations. It was pretty lonely too, since I ran alone. I saw the first person I knew, my husband Aaron and two of my children and my two nephews around mile 19. Luckily, my saving grace was my awesome Northstar crew. Robbie finished the race out with me from Lemondrop on, and showed me what those sponges were for, and it wasn't pretty, but it got done with a time around 5:14. Thanks Robbie! I want to do Grandma's again, and this time, I want to get out of my head and enjoy it. So, maybe I will be training again next winter. But my friends at Northstar definitely make all the training way less onerous. Also, I loved the supportive texts I got which made me feel better. Thanks friends! I never thought I would finish a marathon and be disappointed with my time, but I think that comes with the running territory. I hope to get back to my plain ol joy of running for my next race.