About Me

Greetings, friends!

This blog is a record my personal progress as a runner, aspects of the training process, races, gear, balancing training with life, and everything in between. This is by no means an original idea, just about every runner likes to blog about their running lives these days. Which is wonderful, because it serves two important purposes: self-reflection, which is key to improvement in athletics (and just about anything else), and connecting the athletic journeys of so many of us. So I hope you get something out of my words - at the very least, I do!

Some background on me and my running history...

Northern Arizona Regional XC Meet, 1999

I've been running for most of my life, racing in the Bloomsday Race in Spokane, Washington, where I lived for most of my upbringing. Like many of you, I also ran cross country & track in high school, both in Spokane for my freshmen and sophomore years and in Arizona for junior and senior year. Though I definitely had some solid performances, I did not go on to run competitively in college. While attending Eckerd College in St Petersburg, FL, I ran for fun and fitness but had no real time or distances goals. Instead, I focused my extracurricular energy serving on the Eckerd College Search and Rescue team.

California International Marathon, 2012

Upon graduating, I stayed in St Pete and taught science for six years. During those years I completed my master's degree and earned a black belt in karate, and I started taking my running more seriously. I also became a coach! This was one of the greatest undertakings for me, and has always been incredibly rewarding. I was the assistant cross country coach for the high school where I was teaching, as well as the head track and field coach. This is when I really got back into running competitively. The kids I coached inspired me to take my own running more seriously, and so I started racing in 5Ks and 10Ks again, followed by some half-marathons.

My first full marathon was in January of 2010, the Walt Disney World Marathon! I ran 3:56:01. Certainly respectable, but not yet a BQ.

In 2011, I was offered an incredible teaching opportunity in Monterey, California, at an all-girls boarding school. I also became the head cross country coach there, and had a wonderful time coaching my girls team to local and regional championships. My now-husband, Stephen, and step son, Stephen Jr, were living back in Florida but moved out and joined me after my first year in Monterey. Stephen and I were married shortly thereafter, and he became my bike-along buddy during many of my runs in the world's most perfect running climate. I enjoyed training so much there, and had many successes racing all distances. My first BQ was at the California International Marathon in 2012...squeaking by with 3:34:56.

Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K, 2016

Then came a new adventure. Within two months of running that BQ, I became pregnant with my son! As much as I wanted to train through my pregnancy, my body just wouldn't allow it after about 4 months. I endured the boredom of elliptical for the rest of my pregnancy, and after Jack was born on October 6th 2013, I took time to recover before resuming training. Getting back to running did not go as smoothly as I would have liked, and injury after injury was immensely frustrating.

This learning experience is what inspired me to write my book, Faster After Baby, to share everything I learned during the first couple of years postpartum. My experience is simply one, subjective perspective in a mosaic of so many others, and is by no means any position of expertise, which is why I was also honored to interview and learn from several other incredible running mamas, both local heroes and elite superstars, including Deena Kastor and Stephanie Rothstein-Bruce.

Boston Marathon, 2016

We moved back to Florida in summer of 2014 to be closer to family, and so that I could stay home with Jack until he is old enough for preschool. Since then, I have focused not only on my running (recently achieving new personal bests from the 10K to the marathon, and finally running the Boston Marathon in 2016) but also on connecting my thoughts and experiences with runners like you.
I feel very strongly that runners need to support each other and share our experiences as much as possible. I have also been so fortunate as to become a part of the Oiselle Volée team, an incredible sisterhood of runners that continues to amaze and inspire me.

I look forward to connecting with many of you.

Run on!

~ Meredith