Saturday Spotlight- Kristen Desimone

gosh where does this even begin!! I had a (mostly) normal childhood. I’ve always been pretty outgoing and social, which I guess in my family, stands out. my parents (still married) are both pretty quiet and shy. never really went out much, never played sports, kinda homebody-ish. same for my brother. he was hot-tempered, a little overweight and wasn’t too active either. my parents told me I was adopted from the gypsies. I was easy going, loved being outdoors, playing sports and hanging out with my friends. I also loved school!! did pretty well academically and socially and senior year won the title of “class flirt” (which I’m sure just shocks some of you. lol). one thing I never did tho was run. I thought track was a slow torture. who wanted to run in an oval, over and over!?! not this girl.
fast forward to college (JMU – go Dukes!). dated a guy who ran. and ran. and ran. this guy could grind out 8, 10 miles without even breaking a sweat. so I tried to run. I found I liked to do it at night – it was quiet and peaceful and I felt lighter somehow. I never ran more than 3 miles. that was just plenty. I preferred other physical activity. during and after college I played coed soccer, volleyball and softball. I did MTB. much of the same stuff I did as a kid. I ran a few 5ks but nothing noteworthy.
ok, now I’m going to skip about 15 years on you and move on to what brought me here.
2013. turning 40. eek!! 40! I decided I wanted to do something new and exciting every month for 12 months prior to my 40th bday. one activity on the list was a triathlon. I signed up for cedar beach. a friend told me about this Long Island endurance and triathlete page on FB where people posted meet ups for work outs. right up my alley! Christina Taborsky posted a group swim there. I met her, Kenneth Nuss Jr., Donna Lingen McGarrity, Jessica Reno-Ciardullo and Colleen Liebowitz at west meadow. I thought this is awesome!! people to train with. wahoo!! then Tabs and Donna said come to the hills. I was barely a runner. 3-4 miles tops. but sure. what the heck. then they said come at 5am. wait, what??? somehow running with friends tho gives you strength to do things you’d never thought possible. so one fateful morning I dragged my but out of bed and ran the hills. the girls both waited for me. it was the toughest run I ever did. took me a few months to go back. then I found myself wanting to improve. to “beat” the hills. so I keep coming back and now i proudly call myself a vampire.