Running Into Joy

Happy Monday, friends! A quick content warning: this post deals with some body image issues. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my "why" for running. What keeps me lacing up my shoes and hitting the pavement or the trails week after week. The "why" is something we talk a lot about when we get into the mental aspect of running, and it can shift for each of us from day to day and year to year. For a long time, I've told my "falling in love with running" story as the day I ran my first 5K. The atmosphere of a cheering crowd, a sense of camaraderie as we ran as a pack along the closed-down streets of Evansville, Indiana. Never before had I done anything like this, where simply by putting one foot in front of the other, people cheered me on with handwritten signs, and I felt connected to strangers in friendly competition as I passed them or--more likely in those days--they passed me. And yet... 2020 is the year with no races. Without the forma...

Happy Monday, friends! We are, somehow, in the month of August. The days are shortening, and the march to new student orientation has begun in earnest for those of us who work in Student Affairs. When you work in higher ed, as I do, there is a certain flow to your year. August and September are months of flurried, rushed action. It can be difficult to remember self-care. Last week, I worked long days, rushing on through without a lunch break in the panicked frenzy to try and prepare for the ever-shifting potential situation that will be the Fall 2020 semester. My grocery trip consisted of picking up contact solution and a stack of frozen meals to take for lunches. Yes, August is a challenging time for me to remember how to care for myself. I just finished a session of Yoga with Adriene titled fundamentals of ease, and am reminded of the importance of trying to find balance, find ease, even in the challenging moments. To just slow down, when you can, however you can. As she always...

Happy Monday, internet people! You may recall that last year I traveled with my boyfriend to hike the highest point in New York state, Mt. Marcy. Or, as my  Medium post about the experience recalls, most of Mt. Marcy. That hike took a lot out of me, and not only because it was the longest distance and highest elevation I had faced to date. I met those miles at a point in my life where I'd really lost faith in my body and what it could do. While I hadn't quite yet developed my chronic pain disorder, a few things in my body had felt decidedly not right since mid-February of 2019. I had been experiencing such severe back pain and sporadic right-shoulder numbness that I'd been to the doctor numerous times, each visit bringing a new set of exercises and diagnoses. So, when I started up Mt. Marcy, it was in a body that still felt unbalanced, unsure of this body that felt so strange and so different from the runner's body I had cultivated the year before. I bring th...

Happy Tuesday, friends. Running a little late on the post this week because we're transitioning back to working from the office, so I'm back to a morning commute.  As you know, last week I ran the Sports Bra Squad 5K I’ve been training for since April.  The Badass Lady Gang is rolling right into the best your best 5-mile challenge. I was too late to register officially for this one, because commitments mid-August are hard for me as someone who works in higher ed.  Still, I plan to build strength and race my 5 miler twice along with everyone to see if I can beat my best time. On top of that, we’ve got the “Running from My Problems” 7 miler in September, which is possibly my favorite name for any race, ever (you can still sign up for that one here ). This new distance should fit very nicely into training for (drumroll please) my virtual half marathon. After a week of reflection between the cancellation announcement and the email to switch our registrations, I made the diffi...

Happy Monday, all!  On Saturday, July 4th, I woke up at my usual workday time of 5am so I could get ready and out the door to run the Sports Bra Squad Day 5K before it got too hot here in Pittsburgh, where we're experiencing what I'm told is likely a record-breaking heatwave.  I have been training for this 5K since May, and the journey has been unlike any other. For starters, I've never really followed any sort of strict training plan for a 5K before. 3.1 miles is, in this body, a distance I can manage in one way or another without much conditioning.  But, like so many of us, I've struggled with the stay-at-home nature of most of 2020. Not because I crave people--no, my introverted socially anxious being is a little too comfortable not seeing many humans face to face. Rather, what I needed was a goal,  a sense of forward momentum, something I usually find in working with and helping the students I serve in my dual roles of Student Affairs professional and adjunct fac...

Hello, dear readers.  You may have noticed I've missed a couple of weeks of my regularly scheduled Monday blog posts. At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses, I want to be frank about why. It boils down to:   1) I have not known what to say 2) I have not been practicing good self-care Right now, we are moving through a year of massive turmoil and change. We are in the midst of a pandemic, and a massive conversation around policing and systemic racism in this country. We are, to put it in Tarot terms, in a year with Big Tower Energy. For those who aren't familiar with the Tarot, the Tower is, in my opinion, one of the scariest cards you can pull in a spread. Yes, scarier than Death. It looks like this:  The Tower from the Starchild Tarot In the traditional Rider-Waite tarot deck, this card depicts a tower being struck by lighting, causing it to collapse. The Tower, in my reading of it, represents swift and sudden change, often brought about by a particular inc...

Happy Monday.  Or perhaps more accurately, It Is Monday.  My original plan for today's post was a training log, a stream of consciousness on each day of my training plan last week. But that does not feel useful or authentic right now.  Before, during, and after my runs, my thoughts lately are about a different kind of race.  I am, you may have noticed, a white woman. And like many white women, I get pretty darn uncomfortable when speaking about race.  But that does not, cannot, and should not mean I don't talk about it.  It has been one of many privileges of my life that I've had the option to say things like "I don't talk about race."   It is only because I am white that I have the option to forget about what my whiteness means.  I considered writing a post reflecting on times I have noticed my white privilege, or about what I have done and am going to do to educate myself on how to be a better ally. But honestly, I don't think we need ...