Kiawah Island Marathon Recap

 Why do I run??

My running started about 20 years ago as an adult. I never ran in high school, although wish now that I did. Running was used as either a punishment or for conditioning when you grow up in sports…you miss free throws, run a lap. At the end of a two hour practice…run sprints. Until I became an adult, I never realized that running could be about more than just conditioning or punishment. 

Let running be about more than just running. 

So what is it about? 

When I started, it was a time filler. Filling time, giving me something to do, and getting back into shape.

I would hit the treadmill at the gym and LOVED running hard or intervals. Then I began training for a 10 mile race. I had never run a race before and got hooked up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to raise money and run for their charity. This gave running a positive purpose. It was a commitment. I ran that 10 miler with such significant IT Band pain that I barely finished. I am certain I was overtrained with all the harder efforts. 

As the years went on, I kept running. Got married, had kids, and kept running. Running now started to be about time for myself. My little escape where I could start to feel like myself. It was also about losing the postpartum weight. I got pregnant with my second daughter in 2009, however only 26 weeks into pregnancy, she no longer had a heart beat. Trauma and grief all rolled into my life faster than I knew possible. Sadness, depression, anxiety, sleepless nights….my life completely changed. Running now became about handling my mental health. It became an outlet as well as a way to trust my body again. 

I picked up running again after my third pregnancy, still with a focus as an outlet for trauma, but also it started to become about me. I needed the outlet as a mom. I began signing up for races, and completed my first half marathon. 5ks, 10ks, 20ks, and half marathons became part of the equation. Racing with friends, meeting new friends, I felt like I finally settled in and found my thing. 

In 2017 I got divorced. A whirlwind of an experience, more trauma, more depression, more anxiety. And I just kept running. I ran two ultra marathons, a Ragnar and continued on my path of racing. Running was inclusive. No training plans, no clue on nutrition, no understanding of pacing, and no clue on race day strategy. But I loved it. I needed it. Running became about ways to stay strong, ways to feel like myself, moments to cry, moments to find joy, and of course a time filler again when my kids were with their dad. 

Running has always been there for me. It is the one constant I have in my life. The one thing that has been there for me when others aren’t, when it was hard to get out of bed, or when I felt lonely and depressed. 

My first marathon came in 2018. No training plan, no fueling strategy. I finished, but not well. I proceeded to run the Marine corp marathon and then vowed to never do another. It was hard and it hurt. 

But now COVID hits and now running takes on a different purpose. It’s time I can be outdoors, where I can appreciate seeing others from a distance. It was an outlet from a being a busy working single mom working on zoom and who also went into peoples houses for homecare. 

2022 I decided I wanted to run another marathon. But this time I was going to be prepared. I hired a coach who taught me about training plans, running easy, running hard, fartleks, intervals, speed work, effort runs, hill repeats, etc. I became a student of the sport and craved information. I read books, I listened to podcasts, I watched the videos, I was all in. I absorbed the training and made it to the start line injury free and saw my family at the finish line. An experience I’ll never forget! 

I have gone on to love what the training process gives me. It gives me consistency, it teaches me that I can do hard things, it gives me dedication to improving myself, it gives me the mental health outlet that I need every day. It allows me to show up for myself, to set goals and go after them and to be a role model for my girls. The “why” I run may change as life changes, but running itself is ALWAYS about more than running and ALWAYS there for me. Xo