About Me

First and foremost...I'm a mother! I have the most amazing daughter and I'm so happy she is in my life. I know everyone says this but I really can't imagine my life without her...she is so amazing!
  
I'm also an endurance and trail runner. I love nature and challenging myself which is why I enjoy ultra-distance racing. I also enjoy hiking and pushing myself to new heights. I want to raise my daughter to love these things too and I'm looking forward to sharing amazing experiences with her.

Let's see, a little about me....this is going waaaaay back. I am the eldest of three girls, each of us 2 years apart. When I was 4 years old my youngest sister was born and what should have been a happy occasion was filled with stress, fear and lots of tears. She was born with Spina Bifida and the doctors said her life expectancy would not be long, 2 years max. However, she ended up living quite a long time and passed away when she was 19 years old in 2005. She and I were very close since I was the eldest and had to help take care of her so it's understandable that her death had a huge impact on me. 

My family life was not the most stable after the age of 12 but before that, it was actually pretty cool. My parents didn't have a lot of money, my mother was a stay at home mom, my dad was a very talented paint and body man. But, even without having much money they did things like buy me my first pony when I was 5, let us kids run wild in the woods and moved our whole family to St. Croix, the largest of the three US Virgin Islands where they taught me to scuba dive. Unfortunately, our time in the islands was cut short and after 2 1/2 years, we had to move back to Florida.

I'm one of those people that enjoyed High School when I turned 16 my little sister had to move in with a foster family. Even though I wasn't happy about her being gone, it did free up my afternoons since I no longer had to rush home to care for her. So, I decided to join sports. It was something I had always wanted to do but up until that point, it wasn't possible. But what sport does a 16-year-old join without any experience? I didn't have the advantage that my friends had, they got to play in sports as they were growing up. I mean, I had a natural ability to play, I could swim, climb trees and run in the woods with the best of them...and then it came to me, I could run. So, that season I joined the track team and what I found out was, playing and running around for fun was a lot different than running for competition. The first season of track, I sucked but I stuck with it, off-season I ran and the following year as a senior I joined the cross country team and was ok, that Fall I joined track again and this time around I wasn't horrible. 

After High School, I continued to run and continued to get stronger. I entered local 5ks, 10ks and 15ks, had some success even though they were just for fun. At 20 I decided to join the US Air Force. I thought that it would be a great way for me to get to go to college, travel the world and do something with my life...and that's just what happened. Within my first 6 months of being in the Air Force, I got orders to deploy to Iraq. The war had just kicked off and I arrived in Baghdad only 4 months into the war. It was a very interesting time to be there. Everything was so new, hope was still a thing and the Iraqi's we worked with believed we were all working so they could have a better future. I got to be a part of some pretty important things, worked with some very important people and in the end left feeling good about what we were doing there. If only we knew then what we know now. I only spent one enlistment in the military, had some fun, learned some stuff, saw some places and met some pretty awesome people. I'm happy I served but I'm also happy I got out and moved on. 

In 2010 I decided to run my first marathon in Athens for the 2500 Anniversary race. My next race was the Swiss Alpine 78km and I've been hooked on racing ultras ever since. But they are not all I do, I dabble in many different races.. I love running, no matter the distance.

Where am I going? That is still to be determined, life's an adventure and I'm living it! I've got my family and friends, my health and my legs. As long as I have those things I will be happy!

I'm really looking forward to the future and I'm curious as to where running will take me.


"It doesn't matter where you came from, all that matters is where you are going" - Brian Tracy

Adelaide and I in Peniche, Portugal

Addie and I at the Weinstrasse Halfmarathon 2016

Addie and I on Mother's Day 2016

Addie and I in Landstuhl, walking to the train station