Name: Triin Lawrence
Age: 31
Hometown: Valjala
Current Town: Coram
Marital Status: married, 6 years
Pets: cat Hazel, doesn’t like to be touched so she is not really a pet but more like an animal that lives with us and we occasionally see. Sometimes she sits next to me while I watch TV but if I think too much of that and try to pet her she leaves
Occupation: stay at home mom to a 4 year old Tristan and 2 year old Olivia
I was born and raised in a small island, Saaremaa, is Estonia. Well Estonia is small already itself. We have only 1.3 million people and it is located in Eastern Europe, close to Finland. On the island I lived in a small village, we had five families living there. It was the most amazing village to grow up in. All the families had children and we were all best friends. Our childhood was spent exploring the forest and just being wild and free; well we had no TVs so we had nothing better to do than to play with each other.
All my family still lives in Estonia. My mom is a gardener there. My father is a truck driver. I have two brothers; one older, one younger.
I came to America when I was 19. After high school I really didn’t know what do to next so I became an au pair; live in babysitter. After 6 month I met my husband Damian. After my year as an au pair was done I went back to Estonia and resumed my schooling. Damian and I kept in contact and he even came to visit me. Then we decided that for us to see where this relationship can go I should move to America. I did that but I did not want to get married. So I over stayed my visa and was not able to travel back to Estonia for 4 years. After 4 years we got married and I got a green card. Now I go back home every year.
Well now to running…hmmm… I do not like sports. I don’t watch or follow any sports unless it has Estonian in it. Now a real kicker… my whole family is very into sports. They are all athletic. My father used to play volleyball, basketball and did cross-country skiing (Estonia has no hills). So did my mom. My older brother plays volleyball in like C level groups in Estonia. He is an Estonian champion in Indiaca. My younger brother is a track and field star. When I was younger I was always compared to my brothers. They just were so natural at everything they did. I did not want anything to do with that. So I decided that I will not do any sport.
After I had my children I had gained so much extra weight. I needed to lose that. 2016 January I started running. Ohhh it sucked. I could run for like 5 min and then walk. It was awful. That was the time my older brother was traveling the world and stayed with us for 2 months. He started running with me and pushing me. I was losing the weight. To keep my motivated for my 30th birthday he gave me and entry to a half-marathon is Estonia. Now I was determined to keep training and run well there. Both of my brothers were doing it with me, but I wanted to beat their times. So I kept running. And I did better than them. So they all laughed and joked that finally I was better in something than them. But even after my first half I kept running and improving. I was so proud. But it was hard to keep my self-motivated.
2016 November we moved to Long island from Queens. I wanted to find a running club. I went to Smithtown running company and they told me about the Selden Hills. I went to the bi-county meet and I was hooked. I cursed the whole way but it was so much fun to run with other people. February I already did 80 miles on the hills. I wanted to be part of this group that bad.
Now running has become such a huge part of my life. I love going to training runs and to see people having an amazing time. Races are so much fun; well actually they are so much fun after you are done with the running part. But the most important thing is that I can run longer and faster than both of my brothers