Hello, I’m Jen, nice to meet you! This blog is the result of a lot of back and forth between “do I really need another blog that I’ll forget about in 3 weeks” and “I wish I could stop annoying my friends with my constant fitness/running/eating updates”. I really needed an outlet beyond facebook and twitter to talk incessantly (at least for now) about my running and training goals, so I bit the bullet and started this website.
First, a little about me. I’m from Ohio originally, born near Akron, then moved to Columbus for college and basically stayed there for the next 10 years. After meeting someone in Philadelphia and flying back and forth between the 2 cities for over a year and a half, I finally took the plunge and quit my job in June to move to Philly. I loved the city, I loved the guy, and I had nothing holding me to Columbus, so it was totally the right move for me. I had always been an active person when I was younger (swimming and tennis lessons as a kid, varsity track and field and tennis in high school, rowing in college) but as the years passed at my cushy, sedentary day job, I grew lazy, gained weight and developed high blood pressure. Earlier in the year I started taking my health more seriously and found that group exercise classes at my old gym really motivated me to stay active as opposed to sporadically going to the gym and running 20 sloppy minutes on the treadmill. As I was finally making my decision to move, I got fixated on the idea of running more seriously.
I knew I’d need some kind of hobby to throw myself into while I was unemployed and job hunting in Philly and I had more than few close friends that were either marathoners or training for big races, so the seed of running a marathon was planted. I bought some new shoes, downloaded the Nike+ app on my iPhone and started jogging a mile or two on the bike trail near my house. After a few weeks of this, along with obsessively reading every blog and website on running, I signed up for a marathon that was 6 months away (I tend to dive into things with both feet). The training wasn’t easy, and I didn’t follow my training plan very well, so I had a few injuries, including a stress fracture in my right foot and a sprained ankle resulting from chasing my dogs around the apartment (I do not advise doing that if you live in an 800 sq. ft. apartment and are training for a marathon).
But, I did it! Slowly, but surely, even with all the injuries and skipping one too many runs, I managed to run my first marathon on November 20, 2011. Along the way, I also ran a Rock ‘n’ Roll half-marathon, a 10k 0ver a famous and beautiful bridge connecting Philly and Camden and a fun Christmas-themed 5 miler.
After all the races, delicious shot bloks, free technical tee-shirts, and giant honkin’ medals, I’m pretty much addicted to running. And I think I’m finally comfortable with calling myself a runner, something I never thought I’d be able to say about myself. However, now that the Big Race is done, I found myself looking for a new challenge. I’m hoping to run at least 1 or 2 new marathons this year (Cleveland? Chicago? NYC?) but also try my hand at a triathlon. Luckily there’s an Olympic Tri in Philly in June, so I’m going to start training for that after the new year, as well as possibly train to run another marathon in April/May.
Anyway, I plan on using this space to agonize about training, talk about races and running, and various other jen-health related things like my constant desire to lose 10 pounds, eat healthier or control my blood pressure (exciting!). If you’re also a runner, or a running newbie like me, please please please leave comments and link me to your blog/tumblr/twitter. One of my favorite things to do is read about other peoples’ fitness and health journeys because it’s not only motivating and inspiring, but also just plain fun to chat about a part of your life that 90% of your friends think is nuts or boring. If you want to follow me on twitter, my regular feed is here and my running and fitness word vomit alter ego is here. Tomorrow, I’m going to post about my first swimming lesson in preparation for my tri training! I know you’re on pins and needles!