Re-finding the Joy of Running, Wild Woman Trail Runs, & Listening to Your Body | The Midpacker Podcast
Tl;dr: Listen to the episode of the Midpacker Podcast with Troy Meadows on your fave podcast app. 🎧
Running's been my longest relationship… lasting over half my life! 🤯
It started with growing up along the Boston Marathon route. The Marathon was the best holiday of the year: big family BBQ, blooming daffodils, watching thousands of people of all shapes and sizes running 26.2 through my town and seven more. I watched in awe, knowing that someday I’d become strong enough to try it myself.
Our relationship grew through high school, where I ran track and field and served as team captain my senior year (even making States in high jump and winning a medal in the 4x4 State relay!). I led my high school’s volunteer network for the Boston Marathon, kicking off many years of volunteering on the route. More than anything, I developed a close bond with my team community, cementing a love for the sport.
But we almost broke up after I was volunteering at the finish line during the 2013 attack. It was the first time in my life that I didn’t feel safe in my city, my world. I was no longer invincible. (But I got on the cover of Sports Illustrated one year later because of that. This is one of my go-to “two truths and a lie” truths.)
Running’s relationship became more perilous in the months and years post-April 2013. I started to abuse the sport, my body, numbing out from myself and the world. It was a slippery slope, one I skid down not fully conscious, dabbling in disordered eating and under-fueling and totally disregarding some very important parts of my body, all in the name of what Seventeen Magazine mistakenly taught me was “health.”
The wake-up call only hit me when I experienced an ectopic pregnancy at 24 that required emergency surgery and literally could have killed me.
Sorry to say, there was no simple overnight transformation. But lying in a hospital bed, realizing I knew so little about my body that I had abused and ignored, I knew my relationship needed therapy.
Slowly, over years, we healed together. I ditched the arbitrary numbers and metrics that were really just leaving me injured. I embraced my hunger and alllll the snacks. I dug into reproductive health textbooks and became a Certified Period Nerd (okay, well, actually certified in teaching fertility awareness and menstrual health). I exited the pavement in favor of endless trail miles, slow and curious and meandering with no pressure of perfection.
Fast forward and I trained for and completed a 100 miler (crossing the finish line with period blood on my shorts for poetic irony). I purchased a race business and became a co-director at Wild Woman Trail Runs. And just this month, I launched a Very Big Deal™ opportunity that younger me would’ve dreamed of…
Listen to my episode with Troy Meadows on the Midpacker Podcast where I share PROBABLY TMI but straight from the heart on the messy parts of my relationship with running: overtraining and undereating, missing periods and the ectopic pregnancy, developing a new mindset, and getting into ultras.
We dig into:
My early days earning a second-degree black belt in karate and discovering I could outrun the boys
High school track team years (mostly there for the community and fun)
The difficult college years of over-exercising and under-fueling, chasing an impossible standard of "health"
Witnessing the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 as a volunteer at the finish line
How trauma led me deeper into unhealthy patterns with food and exercise
My ectopic pregnancy at 24 that required emergency surgery, the wake-up call that changed everything
Learning about the menstrual cycle and discovering it's a vital sign (ovulation is actually the main event, not your period!)
Finding trail running in the Pacific Northwest and reconnecting with my body
Running my first ultra marathon and training with friends in the most beautiful way
How I transitioned from that perfectionist mindset to actually enjoying running again
Work I’m stoked about:
Wild Women Trail Runs - Co-directing this all-women's race weekend (the first-ever women's 50K in the US!)
The Cairn Project - Creating scholarships and access for women in outdoor sports
First 50K Sisterhood - Our NEW scholarship program for 15 women to train together and run their first 50K
Periods and running - Find my book here!