Name: Nicole Fariello
Age: 30ish
Occupation: Kindergarten teacher @ NYCDOE
Married to: Wilfredo Colón
Children: Michael Antonio (age 6) and Alexa Joy (age 4)
Pets: Chewie the malshi (age 6 mo)
Good morning warriors:) Thank you Lou for giving me the chance to be WOTW even though I’m still pretty new to the group. I feel honored to be chosen for this week and I hope my story isn’t too boring (kindergarten teachers do not lead the most exciting lives lol).
I also wanted to say that I am so grateful Wilfredo Colón convinced me to join this group. Everyone I have met has been so supportive and encouraging and I have really loved reading everyone’s stories and learning more about you all.
Ok, so a little bit of info about myself: I was born and raised here on Long Island, but one day Wilfredo Colón and I would like to move somewhere else (we just don’t know where yet lol). My mom is a nurse and my dad is a quality assurance engineer. He is also a Vietnam Vet and this is one of the reasons I like to run races to benefit veterans. Heidi Higgins and her sister are two of my best friends in the whole world and I’ve known them since I was in Kindergarten. I was not athletic at all as a kid and I am kinda clumsy so I never played sports on a team. In high school Heidi’s sister convinced me to join track and try race walking, but before the first track meet I became so anxious about the idea of race walking in front of hundreds of people that I chickened out and quit track.
Now I really regret that I quit track but I have an anxiety disorder and I probably would’ve had a panic attack in public. I didn’t get into running until after Will and I had married and had Michael and Alexa. I was dealing with post-partum anxiety and feeling so fatigued and overweight. I really wanted to feel less anxious, get my energy back, and lose some weight. I started eating healthier and cutting out soda. I started walking and working out to Leslie Sansone DVDs. Now Wilfredo Colón says they’re super cheesy and he’s probably right, but I liked Leslie’s positive attitude. One of the DVDs was a walk/run in place one, and I thought maybe I could run too. I started doing the couch to 5k app and told Will I was going to run a 5k. At first he kind of laughed at me but he ended up running too and encouraging me and teaching me how to breath while running. We really supported each other and fell in love with running together! I’m so grateful we started running and I think it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. Running helped me get some of my energy back and helped me deal with my anxiety. I also lost 20 lbs which isn’t a lot but on someone who is 4’11 like me it really made a difference. I am also happy we started running, even if I am not a fast runner, because I wanted our kids to see us living a healthy and active lifestyle, so they would too. I hope one day Alexa and Mikey will run with us, maybe on the hills!
The family that runs together has fun together 😉