Disclaimer-pls excuse all typos and miss spellings. Like all week. Bless you 🙂
So, when Lou reached out to me to be the wotw I was floored. Terrified really. For two reasons, 1-I am actually super shy, and 2-I have never ever considered myself a runner…
I put him off for a couple of
months, and here we are. Heart pounding, hands sweating like I’m about to go on my first date ever.
I was like “Lou! What do I write! Helllp!” And he said, “Calm down, kid. Just start writing about how you got to where you are now”
And I’m thinkin’ “Who would care about that?”
So here we go:
Born and raised hard core Irish Catholic in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Junior Olympic Swimmer. Swimmer all my life.
High School Cheerleader.
General overall legit tomboy.
Graduated from Penn State’s nursing school.
Been teaching and practicing yoga since I am 17.
Fell off the tomboy/fitness wagon in nursing school and took up tequila and Marlboro Reds instead.
Found running when I dropped both of those as a way to reclaim my body at the ripe old age of 20.
Bumped into a dance class to augment the running and it turned into my second career. I was nursing in the ER and other spots at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, and suddenly was dancing in a regional company.
I got an opportunity to move from Phila to NYC in 1980 and dumped nursing to dance.
I started waitressing And theew myself at it.
I was super lucky and priveleged to have had a dumbfounding ten year long career dancing on Broadway. Yes! I can’t believe I got to do thT but I did…those are some stories 🙂
So along the well worn path, a d after leaving New York to
Live in LA for abt 10 months, I retired from dance and moved out this way in 1990. I still had my apt in Hell’s Kitchen-a 5 floor walk up at 51st & 9th, and went back and forth for abt 8 years seeing pvt training and yoga clients. Somewhere after I moved out to the beach I became a licensed massage thpst and ended up out here full time owning a yoga/massage business in Westhampton Beach. During this time I was active in the 5 & 10k East End running circuit, but my first love became competitive slalom waterskiing. In the meantime I ran a yoga retreat in Costa Rica for 5 yrs.
Ok, deep breath…
In the midst of it all I found triathlon and fell smack in love. I mean, face plant. I was hooked. It was 2001. Everyone thought I was nuts.
In the meanwhile, I had my beautiful daughter, sold the yoga studio, turned to private practice with both yoga and personal training, and went full tilt into triathlon training. 24/7 obsessed. I have had the privlege of racing in 132 triathlons, give or take.
I was fortunate enough to bump
Into the beautiful Mr Steve Tarpinian, and the rest is history. He became my coach, mentor and friend, and I was glued to him for ten yrs. I coached for him. He trained me. Then he set me free-shortly before he set himself free from the mental anguish he was enduring inside…
I am now happily settled into a ten year long career of triathon and swim coaching, and wake up every day so excited to get on with what life may shoot my way 🙂
I am still teaching yoga, spin classes, and a beautiful pile of personal training clients.
Oh! And the running…right, that is what we are supposed to be talking about.
Over all these escapades I have found myself to be injury prone-29 times I have broken, dislocated, torn, or sprained some part of my body. 9 of them between my feet and ankles.
I am SO LUCKY to be running at all!!!
Every time I put on my running shoes I am blessed to be in them.
My legs are multilingual, and my feet have carried me to some exquisite experiences along the way.
I have never considered myself a runner. Being among you humbles me to no end.
I have my issues 🙂
But the other day I was out on my favorite run along the water near my house, and a driver who wasn’t paying attention veered their car near me. I shouted “Hey, can’t you see there’s a runner here!” Then I caught my breath, fell out laughing, and ran the three miles home, a runner after all