About Me

I’m a small-town girl now living in Kansas City. I’m married to an awesome guy and fellow runner, and I recently became a mom.

I started running when I was 10 years old. And yes, I do think that was a good thing. My whole life has essentially been a series of seasons—summer track, junior/high school track, high school xc. I even competed for 4 years at the collegiate level, and while that was a GREAT experience (that’s me finishing 2nd in the conference in xc my senior year ) it was pretty exhausting emotionally.

After a two-year hiatus, I dusted off my running shoes and entered a new season of running: running for me, and running for FUN. I look a little bit different now…I’m not sure if anyone thinks “runner” when they look at me, but that’s ok. I finished a 15k in Tampa in February 2007 (the photo shows me heading to the starting line), and that convinced me that I don’t want to be done running yet. I don’t plan on re-retiring.

In 2008, I undertook the Greenville Track Club/Carolina Triathlon Running Series. I completed 9 of the 10 races, which ranged from a 2-miler on the track to a half marathon to an 11k trail run. For my trouble, I received a year’s worth of semi-dedicated training and an age group award.

In 2009, I set my sights higher and began training for the “big one” — the marathon. A great winter/early spring of training left me feeling very confident that I’d soon be the proud wearer of a finisher’s medal. What happened instead proves that, no matter how many years you’ve put in, you can always learn something new about the sport. On an unseasonably hot day in April, I found myself with the dreaded DNF instead.

I was blindsided by the disappointment, but after several months of mental recovery, my new goal was an old one — to finish a marathon. I trained for the 2010 Myrtle Beach Marathon only to have it (unexpectedly, disappointingly, hilariously) cancelled by snow. I’m just stubborn enough not to learn my lesson, so I added five weeks of training to the program and on March 21, 2010 finally, finally finished a marathon.

The rest of 2010 passed by in a blur as I prepared for motherhood. Now that my son is here, running and blogging about running shall resume. It looks like I need a new goal…

About the Blog

This blog is part of the “running for fun” experiment. If anyone else finds my experiences entertaining, enlightening, or enjoyable…well, that’s great, too. But the real purpose of the blog is recording my journey mile by mile, step by step, random thought by utterly random thought.

I love to blog…but one of the negative aspects of blogging is that the more you write, the less time each post gets to spend in the limelight. If you’re new to MeganRunning, here’s a list of some of my favorite posts (long since covered by other ramblings) that you might enjoy:

• A Word About Cross Training…Or, an Ode to DDR
• 1001 Reasons Not to Run
• What to Do for Runners
• Monikers
• Just One More…Or, the Games We Play
• To a Tee
• Swamp Rabbit Trail: Part 2 of Some
• On Energy & Deception
• Lessons Learned While Almost Running a Marathon
• Swamp Rabbit Trail: Part 3 of Some
• Leprechauns, Mountain Bikes, & My Friend Ralph…or, Shamrock Marathon Recap