Name: Elizabeth Moran
Marital Status: Married
Age: 33
Children: a fur child – a crazy googly eyed Boston terrier named Noah
Occupation: Attorney – prosecutor
Hobbies: Running!
Hometown: Lindenhurst
Current: Still in Lindenhurst
My Story:
So my entire life I was anything but athletic – that didn’t mean I wasn’t active – but sports weren’t really my “thing.” When my family moved back to Long Island (we are a military family)– I started to dip my toe into sports. I remember my parents letting me sign up for a PAL track team in Massapequa – it went horribly, and at 10 years old I concluded that without question – running wasn’t my “thing.” Eventually my family ended up in Lindenhurst and during middle school and high school I joined the school soccer and lacrosse teams (convinced that I still hated running – but of course picked the sports with the most running lol) and was without a doubt the least athletic person on those teams.
I went away to college in D.C., and in college I would run 1-3 miles a day on a treadmill as a form of ritualistic torture/way to keep off the “freshman 15” – I remember one time I tried running outside and quit immediately when I realized how hard running outside was (there was no AC, no TV, and so many hills!!!).
I transferred colleges to SBU and swapped running for kickboxing classes. After college I went off to law school, and while in law school I didn’t have the time to study and go to my kickboxing classes– so I quickly packed on about 20lbs. When I graduated law school and began studying for the bar I realized I needed to change my habits and forced myself through a couch to 5k program (after seeing my Dad Vincent Moran
get into running that way). I still hated running at this point;
I hadn’t quite made that jump from “running is torture to burn calories” to “running is the best!” I made it through the summer of studying for the bar – and got ready to enter the working world. Once I started my job, I decided to try to keep up with running and knew I needed to stay active. One of the first races I did was the LI Marathon Weekend 10K – I signed up with my Dad, I remember walking multiple times during the race and thinking that 6.2 miles was an impossible distance multiple times, it was so hard, but I got it done. I eventually decided that if I actually trained, I could probably run farther and would probably not want to quit as much as I did during that 10k.
I decided to actually commit to a training plan and to sign up for a half marathon. I convinced one of my friends at work and we signed up for the Diva Half Marathon in October. I googled “how to train for a half marathon” and ended up using a Hal Higdon half marathon training program. For those that don’t know me, I’m incredibly stubborn and type A – I was committed, I needed to stick to that training plan exactly as written, and I must get to the half marathon, and most importantly I needed to finish that half marathon. During that Spring/Summer – I jumped over physical obstacles, and more importantly mental obstacles and realized – hey! I feel better after running – it cleared my mind and my body felt great. I pushed through the training runs and discovered a few things like chafing (ouch), and the need for fueling, and realized that running wasn’t so bad. After that half marathon – I was hooked! I set my eyes on a marathon – and eventually (over the course of the next 4-5 years) ran 3 (NYC in ’16, Chicago in ’17, and NYC in ’18).
Fast forward to 5 years later at the Great South Bay Brewery’s Aloha Run in 2019– I ran (it was so humid!!) and my Dad volunteered. While volunteering, my dad met Lou and I later met Lou at the after party and we began talking about the Selden hills. A few weeks later my Dad and I traveled the 20 something miles east to Selden and discovered the hills and there’s been no looking back since. It’s great to find a place to run that is always challenging, but also a great community! Thank you Lou for asking me to be Warrior of the Week! I’m looking forward to the rest of the week!!