Blog (Page 2)

Disclaimer:  I received an entry to the Destination Races Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews. On July 21st I will be running the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon, which is part of the Destination Races Wine Country Half Marathon series. This is one of my absolute favorite races because A) Wine, and B) Wine! But seriously, it is an absolutely beautiful course as well as a very well-organized race. I ran this race for the first time in 2016 (I’mRead More →

  Disclaimer:  I received an entry to the Surf City Half Marathon as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find, and write race reviews. You know we’re goin’ to Surf City, gonna have some fun! In February I will be traveling to beautiful Huntington Beach, California for the Surf City Half Marathon. If winter in Chicago is anything like it was last year, I will be more than ready to get away by then! While it’s too early to predict, the average temperature that weekend (February 2-3) starts with a lowRead More →

Happy Friday! It’s cool and rainy here in the Chicago area this morning. Why not pull up a chair so we can catch up over a nice warm cup o’ Joe? If we were having coffee, I would tell you to take a few steps back and chat with me from across the room. I’ve been sick since Monday, and as of this morning, I feel like I might hack up a lung. Sorry for the visual. The Chicago Marathon is in just two days. This seriously is no bueno. I have never DNSd a race, and at this point, I don’t plan to. IRead More →

With the end of September comes not just the end of Summer, but also the end of my travel to Europe! It was a great trip and we were able to not only get some great sight-seeing in but also a whole lotta walking miles. Our final week (actually 4-1/2 days) was spent in Kraków, which was the most meaningful part of the trip for me. My grandparents on my mother’s side were from outside of Kraków, so from the moment our plane landed, I felt like I had arrived in the Motherland! Here is a brief (very brief!) recap of the past week: Monday,Read More →

It’s the last Friday Saturday of the month, and that means it’s time to open up the Runfessional! I’m linking up with Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice for another Runfessions session! I have to runfess, despite the fact that the Berlin Marathon was almost a full two weeks ago, I have yet to write my recap, and at this point I feel like it’s a distant memory and I should just move on. After the marathon, we hit the ground running walking and had very little downtime in Europe where I could actually sit down and write. Now that we are home, I have a million things to catch up on, andRead More →

I haven’t posted in a bit, which is not to say I haven’t been busy! My husband and I flew to Europe on Wednesday, September 12th, arriving in Berlin on Thursday, September 13th. Our itinerary includes Berlin, followed by Prague, followed by Vienna, and then finally Kraków before returning home on Friday, September 28th. I write this as we are preparing to fly to Kraków for our last leg of this trip. As most of you know, I ran (ran/walked/walked/walked/walked) the Berlin Marathon on September 16th. We’ve been so occupied touring Europe, I haven’t yet had (or taken) the time to post a recap. ThatRead More →

It’s time for the Weekly Wrap! I haven’t posted one in a few weeks because unfortunately, I haven’t done much to wrap about. I’ve been traveling like crazy which is good for business, but bad for marathon training! My travel involves teaching eight hours a day, three days in a row. I arrive for class at 6:30 a.m. and teach until 4:00 p.m. daily. It is lecture format so I am talking almost non-stop the entire time, and I usually am exhausted by the ends of the days. I travel around the U.S. and Canada conducting these classes, and I am gone four to five days at a time. WhileRead More →

This post contains affiliate links. This week, the running community was rocked once again by another senseless murder of yet another beautiful human being. Like many of you, I followed the story of Mollie Tibbetts’ disappearance closely, only to learn the devastating (and unfortunately, expected) news that Mollie was murdered while out for a run. I don’t pretend to have known Mollie or anything about her besides what was reported to us on the news. She was a 20-year old student at Iowa University. By all accounts, Mollie was a beautiful girl with a bright future ahead of her. She was someone’s daughter, someone’s classmate,Read More →

Odds are you missed it, but my very first blog post was titled I Am Not a Runner. Fast forward five years, and today’s post easily could be titled I Am Not a Swimmer. Because I’m not. Seriously, I could (maybe) swim to save my life. But just as having no running experience didn’t stop me from signing up for my first marathon, why let a little thing like not being able to swim prevent me from signing up for a triathlon? A little history:  The first time I attended any race at all was as a spectator when one of my best friends completed thisRead More →

In yesterday’s post, Marcia from Marcia’s Healthy Slice posed the question:  “Can your BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) be too big?” It didn’t take long for me to answer. For me, the bigger, the hairier, the more audacious a goal is, the more likely I am to set it! I am definitely a go big or go home kind of gal. Leap before you look. All in. Fearless. So yeah, I’d say my BHAG is big, but I’d never say it’s TOO big. I think most people have big goals, but many are afraid to put them out there. Guilty as charged. I generally keep my goals toRead More →