I had just finished my sophmore year at Wheaton and was home working on Cabbage Island for the summer before I headed off to Italy for my junior year abroad. It was about that time I finally considered myself a runner.
I started running near the end of high school for the wrong reason; I had an eating disorder and I was trying to lose more weight. Running was a punishment for eating. I hated it and it was so hard (mostly because I was starving). But over my first two years of college that changed. I found a wonderful group of friends in the Wheaton Running Club. They showed me that running could be social and fun, but in order to run well and long you had to fuel your body.
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| 80's garb for a Halloween Race in 2003 |
My eating issues didn't magically disappear, but I did start to get better. Running gave me this incredible sense of pride and accomplishment that allowed me to see my body for what it could do, not just for what it looked like. In the year that I was 19 I ran my first half-marathon in Hyannis. It was something that I never thought I'd be able to do. Now 10 years later I've run more than 10 halves and 6 marathons on 5 continents. Running has become this integral part of who I am.
Where will running bring me in the next decade?
What were you doing 10 years ago?
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