About

Me:  Hi, I'm Amber, a self-proclaimed gym class dropout.  I was never athletic and would do whatever I could to avoid gym class.  Asthma didn't help my cause and "back then," there weren't as many good treatment options other than my doctor writing a note saying I didn't have to run in gym class.  Probably the worst medical advice ever now that I think about it.

After college though, I was putting on weight and my doctor told me I was at high risk for things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease both because of my family history and my weight.  That shook me up.  I was only 23 at the time.  I realized I was too young to be that out of shape.  I knew I had genetics working against me but I wasn't just going to accept that as my fate.

I signed up with Team in Training and race walked my first half marathon in 2005.  I came back the next year and finished my first full marathon (race walking).  I started coaching race walking and coached more races than I can count.  I covered a whole lot of miles that way!  I started running sometime around 2010.  I've now completed 11 half marathons, 4 full marathons, the Goofy Challenge (a half followed by a full the next day), countless 5 and 10ks, 3 sprint triathlons and 1 Olympic triathlon.

Now I'm one of those crazy/bad-a$$ mother runners you see pushing 50+ pounds of stroller and kid while running.  I now take a baby monitor and put it in the cup holder of the treadmill in the basement so I can still fit my workouts in.  I'm now an athlete!

The Pilot:  That's my husband.  Yes, he's a pilot.  I met him in 2010..on the internet.  After making sure my sister-in-law knew exactly where I was on the night of that first date, in case this guy was an ax murderer, I decided he was a pretty "interesting" guy.   Very quickly he made me all mushy and giddy like an overgrown school girl.  Eight months later he moved in.  And less than a year after that first date, the day before the Goofy Challenge, he asked me to marry him and I said yes.  So while he doesn't really run, he's very much apart of my running.  He often rides a bike or roller blades next to me.  Plus, he's THE best race day sherpa and personal photographer an athlete could ask for.  He's a damn good husband and dad too.

Megatron:  That's the baby.  He was born in July 2013.  He has been rocking my world since he came shooting out!  Between his early arrival and medical challenges, he's been keeping us on our toes.  You can check out some of his journey here. He's a pretty normal toddler these days and has been a sidekick on my runs since he was still in the womb.  He heckles me from the run stroller instead of pushing down on my bladder from the inside these days though.  I love that stink face!

The names.  So I'm really Amber.  I can't pretend to be anything else.  But in an effort to keep my husband's personal life on the DL from his work life, I don't use his real name.  And someday the baby might want to run for office and won't want the public to know that his mom used to shame him on the internet when he acts like a little toddler jerk or post pictures of him when he falls asleep during meals.  So I don't use his real name either.  We started calling him Megatron when I was pregnant and found out he was a boy but before we had a name picked out.  We also didn't tell anyone his name until he was born so we just referred to him as Megatron...or It.  No one liked when I referred to him as It though.....