My progression in running

When I was in my teens, the year I started running the marathon, my coach wanted in on it. I went all out to be really really really good. Things like running a wicked fast time in the marathon on a track, warming up for world major happened. Also things like dropping out of a marathon further than the half mark and not receiving a half-marathon medal, despite running a killer half-marathon time for a normal human being, happened. My perception of what should happen in women’s professional long distance running can be horrible, because some of my experiences could have literally not happened and it would have been awesome. Yeah, there have been times where I would have been the last person to go to for running advice, because I would have been over the top strict, but now I think I am the opposite and try to help people do things the right way. One of the biggest lessons that I have learned, is running a time trial on a track can count as an official race time, especially if you are with your coach who said ‘You will race what you run in practice’. I have saved girls from running a full marathon before racing it, in real life, for real. I like to help make sure young girls have awards and their school writes articles about them, and behind the scenes they are treated right by their coach. One thing I did, was tell a certain race director to give every U20 marathon runner an age group award, instead of just top 3, because top 3 is a morbid thing for young marathon runners to compete for beyond finishing the distance. There were times, at eighteen/nineteen, I turned down the age award because someone was just behind top three and should have had an award too; there needed to be one for all of us or no one should have gotten an age award, being that young. I have even gone as far as suggesting participation awards for people who drop out, but at least tried in certain events during meetings with race directors or owners. It can be revolutionary to think maybe people should have something nice after at least accomplishing x, y and z; versus nothing. One race director here in Syracuse, has tons of chocolate to give away at all of his events, we talked about all my thoughts feelings and ideas working on a fundraiser together; he tosses t-shirts to all sorts of people too. Also, I open up about the marathon being an uncomfortable distance, and maybe waiting until an older age is the healthiest idea. Sometimes, I even break out medical studies to back up my theory about racing the distance at a certain age. In reality, what I ran for time trial on the track is really good for an actual race, and being ten minutes faster than what I ran shouldn’t really have mattered; it is something no one needs to accomplish. I try to be more social on here, than competitive because it is more relatable. I accomplished one of my biggest dreams, not in the way I thought that I would at all, but I beat a standard nonetheless, and I think it is a good thing that everything happened the way it did; still cool. Luckily my coach sponsored and spoiled me with the Harvard track and Boston Marathon course, I even wore my favorite large pearl earrings whilst running my fastest marathon time ever. If anything from my running career you all know to run on the indoor Harvard track, in MDI/Acadia, or barefoot on the beach in run-buns and a sports-bra.