Last night, I joined the ranks of BAMR-dom. (My five adult children will forgive me…BAMR is a Badass Mother Runner.) I met up with Jeff Yannarell, my personal trainer, running coach, and friend of ten years, and two of the guys in his Wednesday night running group at Linda Falls in Valley View, Ohio. Linda Falls, as you’ll soon learn, will soon be known as Hildee Falls.

I first took up running nine years ago, at the age of 47 on a whim. When I met Jeff the year before and started training with him at our local gym, I was a sedentary wife and mom of five preteen and teenage kids who decided to start taking better care of herself. 

Hildee with her coach, Jeff

At my first training session with Jeff, I shared my dream of taking up running but admitted that I had never thought I could do it out of a fear of tripping, hurting myself and looking foolish. During that first year of working together, Jeff had me do walks on the treadmill that included a minute burst of jogging. Sixty seconds turned into a few minutes and before I knew it, I was signing up for my first 5K in May of 2015. That 5K led to many more 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons and Spartan races. 

Some of my running highlights include running a 10K in the Jerusalem Marathon, running my first half marathon with Jeff and seeing my husband at the finish line, and doing various races with my kids as running partners. Jeff introduced me to trail running about four years ago and I loved it from the start. There is nothing like running through the woods, coming across waterfalls, taking in the colors of the leaves and leaving everything else behind for a few miles. 

Time and pace on the trails don’t seem as important as when I am on the road or on the treadmill. When I first took up trail running, I was afraid of getting dirty and wet but over time and through many runs and races, I have embraced the speckles of mud on my legs and even the scratch or two or more I’ve acquired along the way. 

It was about 77 degrees when the four of us started out at 7 pm and everything was going great. There were a lot of sticks and fallen branches on the ground that we had to be aware of as we ran through the woods. I did my best to keep up with the others. We came upon a stream which the first two guys ran across effortlessly. Jeff was just ahead of me and was telling me to be careful of the rocks in the water. I figured I would use the rocks as a platform to walk across to avoid getting wet but I hadn’t counted on the rocks being…well, rocky and not stable. I stepped onto a rock in the middle of the stream and it gave way. So did I. 

I plopped into the water. My shoes got soaked and my bottom got drenched from actually sitting in the stream when I landed; I felt like a baby sitting in a soaking wet diaper! I’m not sure what I banged up exactly but I got right back up and walked slowly through the foot of water to the other side. 

As I got my bearings and rejoined the guys, I noticed some swelling by my right thumb that seemed to be radiating with pain. Assuring the others that I was alright, we resumed our run along the trails.  I laughed as Jeff made a perfect joke: “We need to have this place changed from Linda Falls to Hildee Falls.” 

While an injury on the trail is always badass, falling and getting right back up made me an official BAMR. Running the last mile in the dark, following Jeff and the flashlight of his cell phone to guide us through the trails also made me a BAMR. Being the sole female in a group of three seasoned male runners made me a BAMR. Having dirt speckles on my face and a swelled up, black and blue thumb as a battle scar made me a BAMR. 

In full BAMR-mode with her son Seth

When I took up running nine years ago on a whim I would have never imagined that I would have the guts—or rather the confidence—to show up at the trails of Valley View, Ohio to run the trails at dusk with three guys. A few years ago, I would have seen that stream of water and asked Jeff if there was another path to take: one that would be dry preferably. 

As I follow this path (pun intended) of being the best version of myself, I am doing things that still make me ask ‘You want me to do what?!’ but I am more game than ever to give it a try. If that doesn’t make me a BAMR—or actually a BAGR (I’ve got five grandchildren!)—I don’t know what else does.