It Takes a Village

Since I started running as a kid, it has been my dream to be a professional runner. By no means am I at that level (yet), however I am not done trying to to get there. Running at that level takes a lot of work and a lot of support from those around you: friends, family, coaches, and companies that believe in you. After a very disappointing 2015 I am ready to put the year behind me and start fresh. I am lucky enough to be able to continue working with my current sponsors: Rudy Project Eyewear, The Ranch Athletics and Honey Stinger Nutrition, but I am happy to say that I will be moving forward with both Freeplay Magazine, Nuun Hydration and Zensah joining me in my corner.

Freeplay Magazine is a women's endurance sports magazine that features stories about badass and motivational woman from road racing, trail running, triathlons and anything else woman can excel in. They promote something that most adults these days do not get enough of: FREEPLAY. I myself being an endurance athlete and all together out door lover, I am proud to be part of a team of like-minded women who like to get outside and compete.

We constantly hear how important hydration is to athletes, but hydration is more than just taking in water. You have to replace what you sweat out. That is where Nuun comes in. They make a variety of tablets you add to your water to help keep you hydrated and balanced. I have used Nuun tablets for years between running, riding and even climbing - as many of you know with Seth around, a weekend for me could include all of the afore mentioned activities! I am excited to be able to be part of their team of amazing athletes and to make my water count!

Recovery is just as important is the work you put in. Getting nutrients and blood flow to worked muscles is what repairs your muscles and gets you ready for your next big push. Zensah creates sports level compression socks and sleeves to help promote blood flow to your tissues. This helps you recover fast which = running faster. I am a huge believer in compression and wear them often; like when I am lounging around the house or flying on a plane. I happy to now be able to do that in style!


Any athlete will tell you that any bit of support helps. Whether its moral support or physical support, we appreciate everything that we are given. I feel so lucky to be able to be part of companies who's products I love and who feel that I am worthy to wear their logo. To all of you I say:

THANK YOU!

That's a Lot of Cowbell

This time of year Sacramento always has a happy buzz of runners high. The California International Marathon brings thousands of runners to town while the Western States 100 lottery brings an early Christmas gift to a select few with their shot at the THE ultra of all ultras. This year, I was hoping to be one of the runners towing the line. I was hoping to run my ass off to an OTQ and join a badass group of woman in February down in LA.  Seven years ago today was my first marathon; here in Sacramento, at the CIM. However this year, my rolewas to cheer. With my injury still lingering, I decided it was my job to help those who were healthy make their goal of hitting the infamous standard.

With some of the Oiselle royalty!

Saturday morning I met up with some Oiselle teammates who were in town for a pre-race shake-out run. I hadn't met any of them before so it was awesome to meet some new people and hear their stories. There were six girls who were going to be chasing the standard and even more running down a PR. Meeting them in person made me more excited to go out and cheer them to the finish line. I was struggling with trying to be excited for them while internally fighting my own feelings of anger and sadness. I was truly excited to see them go for it but, at the same time so incredibly envious that I could not be out there to run with them.

Even though I knew months ago that I would not be running, reality did not actually hit me until I saw the elites run by me at mile two. It made not qualifying feel so final; it was really the end to the last four years of chasing. I felt like I was watching them running away with MY dream. MY goal. I fought back tears and the lump in my throat as I tried to keep cheering.  I have always been one to believe that you should encourage those who can do, what you can not. So I let my emotions go and said "If I can not run, I am going to shake the hell out of this cowbell!" I was also standing with Oiselle HQ stud Sarah Lesko and I definitely couldn't let her see me crying! With a cowbell in each hand, I tried to find those I knew and give them an extra ring of encouragement.

Extreme Cowbell-ing!

After making sure everyone runner got a ring of my cowbell, I walked back home to change into some dry clothes and head to the next spot. I met up with Coach Dad and some other runner friends at mile 22, handed out cowbells and we got to work. I was so wrapped up in cheering and dancing along to the high school band, I completely forgot about my sadness and felt good about being there for the runners. I stood there watching runner after runner go by wearing their pain and their determination on their faces. They were four miles from the finish, and you could see in their eyes all they were thinking about was the finish line and they were not stopping until they got there. I think it is physically impossible to watch a marathon and not feel inspired by human resilience. I stayed at the same spot for three hours! I will admit my fingers are a little raw and my throat a little sore but it was all worth it if we were able to give the runners a slight energy boost at a tough spot in the race.

Fueled By Frosting living up to her name!

More COWBELL! 

With a weekend so revolved around the sport I love, it feels almost impossible not to have gotten a little emotional. Running has been a part of my life since I was nine or 10 years old. It's who I am, it's what I do. It has been a bitter sweet weekend that I am glad I can put behind me.  I feel good about my role for the marathon this year and I can say I am walking away with a white hot fire lit under my ass to get back out there and compete.

Your plan isn't "The Plan"

When 2015 started I was feeling more confident and more motivated than ever that this was going to be the year that I qualified for the Olympic Trials. I quickly learned that the plan that you have in mind, isn't always the way things pan out.  I had just run a PR at the Chicago Marathon, and I knew that I was in shape to run faster. I decided that for the spring I wanted to forgo the marathon and run a trail race. I had been pounding the pavement since 2012 trying to get closer and closer to that OT mark (In the mean time, USATF decided to go ahead and lower the mark by 3 minutes for 2016!) and just needed a short mental break from the roads. Coach Dad and I decided on a plan of running the ultra in the spring and then go after the standard in September and/or December.

I went into Way Too Cool 50K in March feeling like I was in great shape. I felt good, I was running strong and was ready to enjoy competing on the trails. Aside from waking up race morning with a freak bout of stomach issues, I was feeling really good in the race and had latched onto a nice pack of speedy ladies and gents. At mile 11 I had to make an emergency stop at the bathroom (thank god there was a port-o-potty there!) and lost touch with the pack. The rest of the race I mostly ran alone, and at mile 22 things took a turn for the worse. I blasted my ankle with an eversion sprain (try to make the outside of your foot touch your ankle bone. Hurts doesn't it?) which brought me immediately to tears. I had hurt it a few weeks prior while running in the Domincan Republic but it hadn't given me too much trouble leading up to race day. This time, however, it was bad. REALLY bad. I had to walk, jog, hobble the last 9 miles (not to mention having to stop and poop multiple times along the way) to the finish where I immediately broke down crying. According to the podiatrist I sprained some ligaments, according to a PT, I bashed my ankle bones together. Either way, the result was that I ended up in a walking boot and had six torturous weeks of no running ahead of me. It took pool time and Seth getting creative at the gym so I wasn't a total raving B from not working out. (Love ya, Seth!)

I knew it was going to be a lot harder now to try and qualify. I still had a good chunk of time to shave off and now had to get back in shape as well. I was ready to try anyway. I started back slowly but by Mid-July I was doing some solid long runs and getting in some fast workouts when my knee decided to go on the fritz. I thought it was just going to be a one or two day fluke where a few days off would resolve it. Here I am 14 weeks later and am only up to running an hour. The diagnosis? Plica Syndrome. (I know, I made that same face too when the orthopedic doc said it.) I had never heard of it and literally thought he was joking. Nope, he wasn't. He pulled up some info on it and it sounded pretty much what I was feeling. The weird thing is that I had run the morning it started hurting but, had no pain and was standing still chatting at the TRT 100 when I first felt it.

ME: Soooo you're saying that I am being diagnosed with a running related injury, but I was standing still??
MD: YEP.
ME: Fantastic. What do I do for it?
MD: Rest for 6-8 weeks.
ME:  Can I leave now?

I got to the elevator and knew right then that my chances at an OT mark were pretty much zero to none. I had to fight back tears all day at work because realizing that the last three years of all my hard work- the early mornings, the sweat, the massages, the tightened nutrition, the naps, the blisters, the pain - felt like it was flushed down the drain. I know I am being dramatic and that I am a better athlete for it, but when it's sole purpose was for one goal it feels defeating. The salt in the wound was that I have been very fortunate to have had very few injuries in my career, and now when I really need to be healthy, I get injured twice in the same year?

NOW, BODY?! YOU WANT TO QUIT ON ME NOW!? WHAT TH F**K!

Ok, venting over. It has been hard accepting the fact that my goal has slipped away. It has been hard keeping myself motivated and it has been hard to watch so many fast friends getting ready to compete at the Trials. Don't get me wrong, I am beyond pumped for all of you who have qualified! I just wish I could be there on the starting line with you.

So tired!

So what's the plan now? I am going to take the rest of the year pretty mellow and not follow a structured training plan. I plan to spend some more time at The Ranch working on my strength and mobility to avoid any more injuries. I have also made a recent purchase on a new mountain bike, so I want to spend some time getting better on two wheels. However, that will be short lived because I also decided that since I am taking some down time, I am going to have surgery in December to have the hardware in my wrist removed. It has been causing me a lot of pain over the last few years and I feel now is as good a time as any to have it removed. Silver lining perhaps?

I will pick myself back up in 2016 and start again. There are more races to run, more fun to be had and more life to live. Plus, 2020 isn't so far away, right!?

Stronger is faster!

A Work in Progress

Since sustaining a knee injury back in July, I have had to find other ways to fill my time. Today we were invited to go mountain bike riding with some friends. I have not been confident on any sort of bike for many years and I am even less confident on a mountain bike. However, Seth bought me a bike a few months back and I said I would try it under the condition that he doesn't take me on any trail that has more rocks than the number of letters in his last name.

Chatting with some of our local runner friends!

We met up with a group out at Granite Bay Beach and hit the trails from there. Another one of the girls in our group was just learning to ride as well so I felt better about them not tricking me into going on any trails where I would be white-knuckling my breaks.  The guys started us on some pretty easy trails to get us used to shifting and to get a feel for the bike. Once we hit the more technical trails, shit started to get real and my fear surfaced. I was having a lot of trouble with my back brake causing my tire to lock-up and slide more than I wanted. It started to make me feel like I didn't have control of my bike and that I was going to kiss rocks or take someone out. My fear made me lock up like I had rigger mortis and I looked like a five year old learning how to ride a bike. I started walking my bike down steeper, rocky areas which I knew I could ride, but was lacking the confidence to do so. I started to get really frustrated for reasons that Seth says are due to my Type-A personality;  I have to do everything perfect even if it's the first time I try it.  Which I have to admit, he is probably right (don't tell him I admit that). I tend to get frustrated really easy when I can't do something. Maybe it has to due with me growing up as a competitor, but I HATE it when I can't do something. I hate it even more when I can't do it because of my own fear. It's not that I am necessarily bad at it, it is that I haven't even given myself a real chance to be good.


Seth and the others had to reassure me that the issues I was dealing with today were issues they all dealt with when they first started riding. I can't let my frustration stop me from trying again. Despite being afraid, I had a lot of fun and so did everybody else. I would hate to miss out on experiences like today because I am too scared.

Eric, me and Monica. Look at the blue sky!

Me and the other newbie, Monica catching up to the group.

"Stop beating yourself up.  You are a work in progress; which means you get there a little at a time, not all at once. " - Unknown 

Pearly Whites

I started blogging to share my life’s ups and downs with the world. Although I haven’t been the most consistent blogger, I try to make all of my posts meaningful and have something that you guys can take away with you. Plus, I am not the world’s best public speaker (ask my college coach and I bet you he will just laugh) so this is a good way for me to pass along my messages. 

Hornet Alumni

I recently received a phone call from my Alma mature asking me if I would come and speak to the Track and Field team about my experiences as a student-athlete.  At first I thought “what do they want me for? I don’t have anything great to share about my college career.” I don’t. I had a decent career, but nothing that anyone would be excited over. So I started to think about what I DID learn from being a college athlete. The first thing I thought: the 5k was definitely NEVER going to be my forte - and I mean NEVER. Not that I don’t enjoy a good 5K (it’s rare) but I will nine times out of 10 have my ass pummeled into the ground. Thank god for the longer distances, right!? Anyway, I reflected on my experiences and the time I got to spend at what has been the closest to a professional athlete that I have ever been. I thought about the lifelong friends I made, the experiences I had and the memories that can never be taken away. I also thought about the struggles I had. How I almost quit my junior year. How discouraged I got and how unhappy it all made me. I talked about this in an earlier post so I won’t bore you with the details again (you can check it out HERE if you really want to know! ☺ ) but I realized that the one piece of advice I wanted to get across to these younger athletes was to have as much fun as possible.  What I wouldn’t give to have that team atmosphere back in my life. Having been a collegiate athlete and now trying to continue my training as an “adult”, I realize how good I had it. My whole world revolved around running! I resented it a little back then because I felt like I was missing out on something when I would see my non-athlete friends going out and having a good time while I went to bed early for morning practice or eating chicken and broccoli instead of pizza and beer. Now, I would choose bed over doing almost anything and realized just how convenient that plain piece of chicken can be after a 5:00 am run and eight hours of work! 

I believe that every single person should truly enjoy what they are doing and if you aren’t happy, CHANGE SOMETHING. Make yourself happy. I don’t mean that to sound as if I am suggesting they quit the team, I am merely saying that life is too short to be miserable. I know it sounds cliché but if there is one thing my sister’s death taught me, it’s to do what you WANT to do and to do what makes you HAPPY- while you still have time above ground. Of course I mean that within good reason - don’t go murdering your ex’s new girlfriend just because it will make you happy! ;)

If you’re not smiling every day, you’re doing something wrong.

2015: My Journey, My Goals

Last October I ran my final marathon of 2014 in Chicago with a PR of 2:50:56. WOO HOO! A PR, YAY! That's at least how you would think I would have reacted. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to have run a PR - especially after that train wreck of a marathon in Boston. (If you missed that story CLICK HERE.) I should have been walking out of the Athlete Village with a huge smile on my face and my head held high - I wasn't. I wasn't crying or dragging my feet either but I wasn't completely happy, and to be honest I was a little bummed out. I went into the race really feeling that I had a 2:48 in me. I was 100% confident that  a sub-2:50 was what I was going to run. But I didn't; I can't blame it on my training or my race plan or on anything else. It just simply wasn't in the cards that day and the fact that  it is something as simple as that made it so hard to be excited about what I DID accomplish - I still ran a 2:50 for goodness sakes!

I took the rest of October easy, only running every other day or so. At the end of the month when it was time to meet with Coach Dad to plan out 2015, I walked out of there anxious and not excited. I did a lot of thinking and decided that I needed a break. A break from the road and the grind and the endless feeling of fatigue. I needed to do something for me. For two years I sat quietly obsessing over the trail scene. Constantly checking the race feeds and entrant lists to all the big races. I envied anyone I saw running and racing ultras and I longed to be part of it. Any chance I had to do my long run on the trails, I took advantage of it. I was longing for the dirt, the trees, to be on a single track hearing nothing but the sound of my feet and the air in my chest.  After some heavy thinking, I decided it was time that I followed my heart and I run an ultra. The trails are where I feel happy. Where I catch myself smiling while running - not because somebody told a good joke, but because I am exactly where I want to be.

It took me three separate phone calls to Coach Dad to finally get out that I wanted to run an ultra instead of a marathon in the spring. We both have been so single tracked (pun intended!) on me qualifying for the Olympic Trials that I was afraid he was going to see it as me abandoning my goal and be disappointed. But he wasn't, and it didn't take any convincing at all for him to be 100% on board with it. He wants me to feel enjoyment in running just as much as I want to. It  is something that is totally refreshing and I am lucky to have a coach that wants to help me achieve me goals, no matter what they are.

So consider this my announcement that I will be running the Way Too Cool 50K this March! I know I made the right decision because I feel happier, healthier and stronger than I have in the last year. I have already received some amazing support and encouragement from my family and my friends and it makes me even more excited to make all of you proud! I really do have the best support system a runner girl could ask for.

THANK YOU!

I have an amazing 2015 ahead of me. How amazing? In a little over a month I will be spending a week in the Dominican Republic only to come home and race my heart out right in my own backyard and then do some awesome trail running and beach cruising on a trip to Hawaii in May. I haven't given up on my quest to qualify for the OTs and I will be racing my guts out in Berlin this September! Yes, I am aware that it will require me to run a 7 minute PR -but go big or go home right!? But home only after we go to the country and then to Paris! :) I am beyond excited to have the chance to do some traveling this year, but I am more excited about the people I get to travel with.

It truly is a Runderful Life!