I’m usually found exploring something new, from craft beer bars to learning how to ski this winter (which didn’t help my running mileage very much).

For work, I’m a Senior Product Manager at Prolific Interactive, mobile development and strategy agency.

I looked back and my first workout with the Whippets was June 2, 2015. The notes in my running log were: “Had a really good experience at the DW workout in Central Park. 2 miles at half marathon pace (I joined the 7 min group, and we did something like 7:00, 6:35) followed by 4x400m (a little short) gradual hill repeats at 10k pace. cool weather, felt great. do-over. 🙂”

After graduating from college and moving to Boston, I wanted to keep competing and being a part of the running community, so I joined the Greater Boston Track Club (also a great club with great people and great coaching). I quickly posted multiple PRs from the training I was doing there. Unfortunately, Boston as a city wasn’t my “cup of tea” and I headed back to Pittsburgh for a new job. No major running culture in the city combined with a new feeling of burnout from years of running stress led me to a two year hiatus from any real, sustained workouts or competition (but not a hiatus from stressing out about running).

At the end of summer 2014, I started getting the urge back and upped my training quickly, resulting in my first real injury, a stress fracture in my foot. Meanwhile, I was preparing to make another move to New York. Once I arrived, the addition of so much walking in my routine helped my foot heal quickly and I started investigating running clubs. The Whippets were the third club I tried, and I knew immediately it was the right one (Matt Wong’s persistent recruiting helped too). I loved the combination of structured workouts geared toward competition with people who wanted to drink a beer after them.

Not even a year after that first practice, I’m finally getting my legs back and even though I’ll continue to do things like skiing and running the 400m in our Distance Medley Relay, I’m focusing my training on the 5k and hopefully get back in PR shape again with the support of the awesome Whippet coaches and teammates.

Photo credit: Zachhetrick.com