About Me

Hometown:  Cromwell, MN
Birthday: 2/12/84

Highschool: Cromwell, MN

College:  College of St. Scholastica  DPT
Coach: Chad Salema, Head Nordic Ski Coach College of St. Scholastica

Joined US Racing Mizuno Team January 2011
Half Marathon PR: 1:14:40 (2010 Eugene Women's Half Marathon)

Marathon PR: 2:33:01 (2011 Grandmas Marathon)

My Pursuit of Excellence-

In January of 2011 I became a member and ambassador of the USA Mizuno racing team and am currently training to compete in my first Olympic Marathon Trials which will be in Houston January of 2012.   Seriously did I just type that!  How did I get here?   

I grew up in the small town of Cromwell, Minnesota on a farm.  Due to our small town size (200) we never had tryouts for sports.  This provided me the opportunity to participate in any sport I desired (even football - my best friend did).  If there had been tryouts I probably would have been cut from every sport I participated in.  I started out with the intent of being a volleyball player in the 7^th grade, however being the fairly uncoordinated individual I am I quickly realized I was not destined to be a successful volleyball player. The following fall I participated in cross country running and continued through my senior year with running.  I also participated in track and field and basketball.  In track I ran the 400, 800 and was a triple jumper.  I never participated in a state meet.  The closest I came was in the triple jump!  My average pace per mile the last marathon I completed is faster than my best mile time in high school.

I graduated from the College of St. Scholastica in 2008 with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy and competed in cross country running and track & field while there. I trained hard, was motivated but wouldn’t consider myself a standout collegiate runner.  My final year of track I qualified and finished 12^th at the NCAA DIV III Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 10k under the guidance and coaching of Chad Salmela who I continue to work with today.  I improved my 5k time of 19 minutes to 17:30 and 40 minute 10k time to 36:30 my final year.   I still get goose bumps thinking about competing at Nationals. It was the first time that I believed I might actually be successful at running.  I since have been in pursuit.

Since my final year of college a lot has transpired.  I received the MDRA MN Runner of the Year in 2009.  I started receiving apparel support from Mizuno the fall of 2009, working with Joey Camp here in MN.  I qualified for the Olympic Trials at Boston in 2010, finishing as third American missing the A marathon standard by 2 seconds!!  I moved to Oregon the summer of 2010 to focus on training and getting those 2 seconds, which I achieved in Chicago last fall. I have raced 6 marathons the past two years, improving 14 minutes during this time span.   I get excited, I scream after races.  And I’m ok with that!  I am eager to continue to improve. 

I moved to back to Minnesota in January and trained here through September.  In addition to training I also work as a Physical Therapist.  In MN I have been working at the Institute of Athletic Medicine.  They have been extremely supportive and I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to grow in my profession as a therapist in addition to my training.  I am feeling healthy, motivated and am fully focused and committed to my pursuit of excellence in distance running. I currently am on a leave of absence from work as I have been training for New York and the Olympic Trials.  I also am currently training and living in Arlington, VA.

“In every pursuit, focus drives consistent high-level performance.  The recipe for high quality focusing is simple-stay positive and stay fully connected.   You have to decide to focus, choose to focus, find good reasons for focusing, and commit yourself to work on improving your focus so that it works for you and not against you- every day, every assignment, every practice, every training day, every preparation session, every simulation, every meet, every interaction, and every part of every performance- from the first second to the last second. “ – Terry Orlick

Every step I take I am focused.