One year.

ONE YEAR.

In some ways, it feels like it was so much longer. This has been one LONG year, and there were so many moments that my spirit was broken; I didn't think I could take any more PT; I wanted to go lie in the fetal position and accept that I was never going to run again.

In other ways, it is hard to believe we are already here.

I have not regretted my surgery, not once.

Even on my worst days, in the moments when I was so convinced it was never going to get better, I still believed that what I did was for the best.

I still have a long way to go. It is easy to look at my training from the outside, and see that yes, I am probably 90% there.

AND, we (as in you AND I) have to remember that I took almost six months off running. The last piece of the puzzle, my fitness and endurance, is gonna take a while to come back. It will probably be a year before that last 10% is there, and I want to go beyond where I was pre-surgery to make a go at running competitively in ultras.

At one point last year, I was looking at the Miwok 100k in May to be my goal race. When my PT, Ana, gave me a look that said, "Uh, might wanna rethink that," I was horrified, "How DARE she!?"

Now though, I laugh; absolutely no way could I have been ready for that, and that is okay.

I am happy with where my body is, proud of the way I have approached my rehab. I did the PT. I did the MOBO exercises. I did the biking.

More than all that combined, I did what I was told. When I thought I was ready to get back to running, and Jay Dicharry told me on a Zoom call with my team (Steve; Ryan, my strength coach; Ana and Sarah, my PTs) that I was absolutely not ready to run, and the others quietly nodded in agreement, it broke my heart. I wanted to yell at Jay and tell him he didn't know what he was talking about.

Okay, that part isn't true. I would never tell Jay Dicharry that. If anyone can tell me what to do and I would listen, it's Jay. But I did have to resist the urge to get defensive, to try to prove to him that I was.

Instead, I took the extra month off he told me to. I ignored the number of months I had in my head as an acceptable amount of time off (based on calculations of seeing Olympians returning to running, post-Haglund's surgery), and continued to walk and bike instead of run.

When I did begin to run, the road was really, really bumpy. It still is.

There were so many other weird pains, aches, and discomforts that came up in muscles that I had never had a problem with in my life, and it was hard to know which to ignore and which to listen to...all while battling the voice telling me that my Achilles hurt.

It was hard to imagine a time it would ever feel normal again.

Slowly, over the past six months, I have clawed my fitness back, eased my running form back (close) to normal, and tried to be patient as my body slowly came back to working as one unit.

That's not to say I am there yet. On Tuesday, I did my first hill workout, another stimulus that I had to slowly ease into. I am nowhere close to being ready to race.

And yet, it is coming along exactly as it should be. I am enjoying the process of building back, supporting friends in their own adventures while I do so, and building on the momentum we have within my environmental work.

(On that note, check below for an opportunity for you to run the 2025 Bank of America Chicago marathon with me this year as part of our Racing For Sustainability team!).

My friend Stephanie Howe told me it took her a year to be mostly pain free, two years before she felt like herself. I have kept that in my mind as truth. One more year feels like a long time to wait to feel like me.

And yet....

Did you see my email at the beginning of the week?

You can be one of five people on our Racing For Sustainability team this year at the 2025 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Fill out the form below to apply; I am so excited to have some of you with us!

If you are not able to run, but want to support the work we are doing to help small to medium races with their sustainability initiatives, a donation of $25 or more makes a huge difference. We will send you our Running...and Beyond guide as a thank you. If you have a RunSignup account (which you probably do for entering races), it only takes seconds.

Come plog with us this weekend if you are in Boston:

Saturday, April 19th at 10 a.m.

Kofuzi, Mrs. Space Cadet, Drew Whitcomb, and I will be hosting a plog towards the 26.TRUE course.

Sunday, April 20th at 1:30 p.m.

Endorphins Running and I will be plogging from their popup store on Newbury Street.

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And a few other links:

LOVED this documentary from my friend (and recent podcast guest), Lauren Bash. All the feels.

Love that Racing For Sustainability has been included on the Race Directors HQ list of environmental consultants.​

Brooklyn-based? Be an early sign up for our Brooklyn Plogging event next month with NYRR.

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you–all of the expectations, all of the beliefs–and becoming who you are." -Rachel Naomi Remen

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Thanks to our partner, AG1

With all of the events I'm doing - like the plogs above! - AG1's travel packs make it easy for me to keep to my morning routine, no matter where I am. They're a standard item on my packing list, as essential as things like my toothbrush! And since I'm always busy on these trips, I want to make sure that I'm getting the nutrients I need to support my activities.

When it comes to my health, I want something I can trust - and that's why I choose AG1. With science-backed ingredients and real benefits I can feel, AG1 makes it easy to support overall wellness every day. That's why I've been partnering with AG1 for so long. AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You'll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 and five free travel packs in your first box.
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Be kind to one another, yourself, and this beautiful planet of ours.

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