Terri is working on a graphic novel/memoir called You Run Like a Girl. It is a compilation of running comics that will offer a brief history of women’s running in the USA from approximately 1960 to today, featuring a few select biographies of noteworthy U.S. women runners during that time and how all of thiat has has shaped our lives as runners (or NOT runners).
Terri says:
I am hoping to add some personal experiences, thoughts or brief stories that can help round out what things have been like for us all over the past 50-60 years. I would love it if you could chime in and share a statement or short paragraph on the topics below. I would only be using first names (or anonymous if you prefer) and the year your experience took place.
What brought me (back) to running was ___________.
Be assured my personal experiences are going to touch on Ragnar Relay with Another Mother Runner, running in Corning, New York (marathon and other), the New York City marathon, my coach, and running with family (C25K!!) and friends.
Sarah and Dimity as illustrated by Terri. Please share your experiences with us in the comments!
I gave up racing after high school because I thought I wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t race for 15 years after high school cross country. Then I ran a half marathon. Everything changed. I blew myself out of the water. My first half was 1:48:56. My fastest half to date is 1:33:34. I still don’t ‘feel’ fast. I simply run. I am faster than I thought….
I LOVE this concept for a graphic novel/memoir! Can’t wait to read it!
I hated running in high school gym class. It felt like we always had to go all out and heel striking was promoted, lol. Walking around all day after sweating buckets was unappealing. But I idolized fit women that ran in my neighborhood. I wanted to run like them, as if they enjoyed it daily. My love affair with running was on and off again for years, but love won out I am happy to say. I just hope I can be that woman running in the neighborhood to inspire some little girl.
When I was a girl I was told that running was “like practicing bleeding.” Because my immediate family eschewed running, I always assumed it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t until I was thirty and a forceful friend decided we were going to start running for fitness that I even tried. It took months before I could run a mile, and that was one of the proudest days of my life. After several false starts, I started incorporating running into my life on a regular basis about two years ago. Now I’m officially a half-marathoner and am training for my first triathlon!
I was born in 1960. I was a young teenager when Title IX passed and was unaware of it at the time. I started running at field day events in elementary school and found I was pretty fast. I used to challenge the boys on the block to race all the time! I ran my first track meet in Jr. High and continued into college. I grew up mostly in Eugene OR where many great runners were and I was in awe. Running gave me the open door to the college of my choice because I was able to earn a small scholarship. I was blessed with a progressive high school coach who didn’t shy from tough training because we were girls. But I do remember having to fight for time on the track with the boys. I remember clearly a time when we were running all out 300 yd (yes yards, not meters) repeats when a male discuss thrower decided to step into the inside lane of the track and not get out of the way no matter how loud I yelled “TRACK”. My little 100 lbs self shoved him out of the way as I came running through!
Sometimes I feel as if I lived in a bit of a bubble, oblivious to what Title IX afforded me as a youngster. It wasn’t until later I realized what a gift it was and also how far we still today need to go for equality in sport. I’ve continued to run. When you ask how I define myself, Runner is near the top of the list along with my faith and family role(s). My profession tends to come last. I’ve been blessed with a number of amazing female running buddies over the years; older and younger. This has provided opportunities to experience and share life together, to mentor and be mentored, to carry one another along and to hold each other able. I’ve overcome many injuries and life experiences to continue on. Just ran a half marathon in Eugene OR in April. I also give back through volunteering at races and coaching in Girls on the Run. Running gives me life.
I started running when I was 13, as I was offered a spot on the track team. I didn’t particularly enjoy running then, but they told me I could miss some classes for it, so that sealed the deal for me. I loved the friendships I made from then on, and it allowed me to worry less about my body image and just enjoy being active, so I continued throughout college and beyond, with running clubs. Running was great until I was 8.5 months pregnant with my daughter, and then it got to be too tough, so I walked. Running saved my mental state when she was a couple of months old, as it was the only thing that made me feel like myself again. She is now 8 years old, and we run together at least once a week, at her pace, and we have greatly enjoyed doing 5k and 10k races together, about every other month. She effortlessly glides while playing for hours. For me, it’s more of creaky older bones, but it’s still like child’s play. I hope to do this with her until I’m 100.
I grew up in a non-athletic family. We were all musically inclined in a musically inclined town so sports just never played a part in the day-to-day activities of our household. One evening at dinner (mid- to late ’70s) someone mentioned that they heard about a new thing called a “jog bra.” It struck us all as just the funniest thing ever. I don’t think there was a dry eye at the table. Now I will happily spend more on a one “jog bra” than I will on any single item to wear to work – pants, shirts, shoes.
What kept me from being “athletic” as a kid was knowing I would never measure up to the rest of the kids. I have finally come to the realization that I don’t need to measure up to anyone’s expectations. Even my own. All I have to do is meet myself where I am on any given day and move forward.
I never played any sports. I was always the last one chosen for teams in PE and the last (or second-to-last) person to finish the 600-yard run. We didn’t have the mile; I probably would have just collapsed in a heap or else refused to do it. Funny thing is in sixth or seventh grade when we were learning track and field events in PE I was intrigued and thought briefly about trying out for track. I never did though because I lacked the self-confidence and was sure I would be the laughingstock of my grade. In college I took a conditioning course and the worst part was the running. I enjoyed working out on the Schwinn Air-dyne bike and using the Nautilus machines but running was torture because I didn’t know how to pace myself.
Fast forward to age 45, when I decided to sign my boys and myself up for a 5K to benefit the special education program at the local Catholic high school. I got an app called “Ease Into 5K” and trained using walk/run intervals, similar to Couch to 5K. I was nervous as heck before the race, and I was convinced I would be the last one to finish, the only person who would be walking during the race, etc. I was so wrong! It was so much fun, and I realized that everyone was there just to celebrate running and to get together for a great cause, everyone cheered for everyone and nobody cared if you were slow. I was hooked on running! Since then I’ve done a bunch of 5Ks, 10Ks, some 15Ks and a ten miler, plus twelve half marathons and one marathon. I’m hoping to train for another full marathon this fall. I’m not fast by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t win age group awards, but I love the way running has made me stronger, more confident, happier (and I was already happy, too!) and it’s brought many new friends into my life!
Next week will mark 40 years of running consistently without injury except through pregnancy. I was told not to run because I have epilepsy. My parents were fearful as were my docs. I convinced my doctor that if I trained he should sign up to be on the medical team and I would check in with him at Mile 22 of my first marathon. He was stunned at just how capable I was. I like to keep the crowds guessing.
My parents discouraged both my brother and I from participating in sports, but reserved for me were extra special reasons like, female athletes can’t have babies, running is “unladylike,” and “thunder thighs” are unattractive. So I grew up believing that I simply don’t run.
Fast forward to a few months ago, in the depths of boredom while recovering from a cold, I decided that I needed to improve my endurance and cardiovascular health, and inspired by my dearest friend, I was going to do it by running.
My favorite thing about running is feeling like I can breath.
I thought I hated running. I played soccer from 4th grade through high school and did lots of sprinting up and down the field, wanting to fake an injury at times just so I could stop and catch my breath. I can still hear my coach yelling my last name and telling me to “move it!” Once during a practice, however, we had to run around the school. I remember being in site of the finish and feeling like I could fly! I felt like I could run forever in that brief moment. Once married with 2 kids, my oldest had a fun run at the end of his kindergarten year. His principal was a runner. I ran/walked with him and found how it could be fun, especially at a 6 year-old’s pace. I’ve also found how confident and capable it’s made me feel which carried over into everything in life. I’m considering my 3rd marathon this fall and that kindergartener is now entering high school. And that flying feeling? It’s happened many more times and I feel like I can run forever!
I played competitive sports (volleyball and soccer) in high school and college and running always felt like punishment or torture. I would spend all summer training and worrying about whether I would hit the required mile time needed to make the team. It was never an issue, but I always spent just as much time worrying about it as I did physically training for the mile. As a freshman trying out for the varsity volleyball team, I even had to pass a physical test which included a 1.5 mile run in a certain amount of time. That pressure and those goals that were set by someone else turned me away from running for about 7 years after college. I was inspired to start running again when my dad’s side of the family decided to run a local 5K together in Upstate New York that my uncle used to run every year when he was a competitive runner at Ithaca College. My dad, aunt and I walked/ran the whole thing together and we finished second to last, but that run made me realize I could run for enjoyment instead of for someone else’s goals for me. When I got back from that family vacation that included the 5K, I decided to go ahead and sign up for the local marathon in my city. I mean, sure, what the heck, right? After that, I was addicted to the way running at my own pace made me feel and the social aspect of training with others. I might take a few weeks off here and there, but I always come back to running for fun.
I was a tomboy – the only way to play sports when I was in elementary school. There were no interscholastic sports for girls when I was in high school other than tennis, which I was not very good at (but played when I was a senior). There were a few softball play days and one track play day – the longest distance for girls was 440 yards (and I won!). I wanted to be like my older brothers and run distance.
I was thrilled to go to college where they had volleyball, basketball, gymnastics, and track for women. I did all but gymnastics (too tall and could not do a cartwheel). Title IX was just being initiated, so we still had very small budgets, had to buy our own uniforms, and sell concessions at the football games to pay for officials. One year, the men’s AD/basketball coach thought he was ding something wonderful by providing tube socks for the women’s basketball team. To compete at the start track championships, we needed matching uniforms, so sewed out own (the coach paid for material and patterns mostly out of her own pocket).
The men’s swim team wanted to participate in a co-ed swim meet and put up signs recruiting women to swim. I swam in only that meet since basketball, indoor track, and swimming were just too much. My senior year, a freshman woman wanted to run cross country. The track coach then started the first-ever women’s cross country team – starting with only two runners.
I have continued to run for the past 40+ years.
When growing up I preferred outside activities to inside-and was always racing the neighborhood boys. I remember one evening as the parents gathered with their offspring in a small Ohio town in 1960 or so, we were watching Mike run back and forth across his front yard. He was tall and gangly and was going out for the track team in the fall at the local high school. As I raced back and forth with him, trying to keep up, my 9 year old self announced to all who could hear, that I too was going to run track when I got to high school. My dad put his and on my shoulder and said, “honey, girls in high school don’t run track.” I was crushed and dis-believing, but shook it off as most kids do. In 1971 some friends and I decided we wanted a girl’s track team at our local high school. We showed up in great sweats and Keds white sneakers and worked out with the boy’s team one evening. I remember not being able to walk up stairs the next morning, but we kept up the practices and finally got our “coach” (our P.E. teacher) and she actually took us to, and hosted a couple of meets. The longest distance was 400 yards.
I have only given up running once when I was forced to when pregnant. That lasted about three months (pre and post birth) and was quick to get back on the roads after my c-section. Title 9 really didn’t affect me, but I kick myself in the butt still for not joining the women’s cross country team when I was asked, in college because no one really sat me down to tell me what that was all about. I was never told NOT to run, but hardly any ladies were back then in my small mid-western town, but I kept at it, and people I went to school with and worked with thought I was pretty crazy and kept asking me what I was “running from.” So didn’t hide it, but most people didn’t understand it when I started. Running for me has always been great- I am excited about tomorrow morning’s 4:30 a.m. run. I have seen many cities because of marathons, the Grand Canyon as I ran across and back, the tops of mountains, podiums, and have made many friends and acquaintances through sport. I still don’t call myself a “runner”, or a “cyclist” or a’ swimmer” or a “triathlete” although I have done hundreds of races. I prefer to just think of myself as a woman who just loves to swim, bike, hike, do yoga, lift weights, kayak….oh, and of course….run!
GREY sweats…not great. Damn auto correct!
When I was a girl, I observed my mother running. It was the 80’s, there was spandex, and walkman’s, and scrunchies. My mom was a committed runner because she truly loved it. I was young, yet able to understand how much it must have meant to her. She was up and running at 5am during the worst of what a New England winter could offer. Yet she was always happy after, ready to take on the day. It felt natural after I became a mother myself, to choose the same path she did. I told her I was ready to start and that same day we did. She pushes me, she teaches me what she knows and she didn’t let me quit. We run together here and there and I work to keep up with her ( she is 63!) My mom is my running hero – she is why as much as I struggle from time to time , I will never quit.
I’m 43 years old and mom to three young boys (ages 8, 6 & 4) and I work full time in sales. I’ve been running for 34 years. My love of running started when I joined the community track and field program when I was10 years old. I wanted to join sooner but my parents made me take golf lessons (the only activity they ever made me do). I hated golf – it was SO slow – and I wanted to run!!
I was a sprinter through high school and even into college (I ran track at a Division I school as a freshman) and I made fun of the long distance runners for running all those miles. But I started running distance in college and in the Army after I was commissioned as an officer. I had the best support group of fellow female (and male) soldiers and discovered the Hash House Harriers when I was stationed overseas. Some of my best, most lasting friendships have come from running and they still do – 34 years later. I love the exhilaration, the drive, the goal setting and accomplishment of running and I see myself doing into very old age. Most of all, it’s the people I’ve met running and the stories we share as the miles tick by.
What brought me back to running after having two kids in less than two years was initially using it as my self-care time. I have always been an athlete, even playing D3 college sports, so running is something that has been a part of my life for a really long time. But now, as a 40 year-old Mom of 2 recovering from major surgery (my second C-section) I was finding running to be really difficult. I am also an Army Reservist and needed to lose the rest of that baby weight to meet the requirements of that job so throw it all together with my full-time job and I was more than overwhelmed. But, I started again, first long, harder walks with the double jogging stroller, then running 2 miles, then 2.5, and so on until now I am comfortably up to 6 fun, BAMR miles! And the best part of it all, I have my own cheering section… Whether they are in the jogging stroller or back at home, my kids cheer me on. From the stroller they shout “faster” or “go Mom”, or when I arrive home I hear from my almost 3 year-old daughter “Did you go for a jog?” at which I respond “Yes”, then she says “Did you run super-fast?” at which I respond “Sort-of and I felt super strong” and she says “I’m super strong, too” and shows me her muscles. Then her little brother, almost 1.5 years old, shows us his muscles. This, my fellow mother runner friends, makes it all worth it! I may be exhausted by the time my head hits the pillow but if my takeaway from the day is that through running I am a happier Mom, my children see an example of how to be strong and they see that their Dad supports me 110%, then it is all more than worth it! Many happy miles <3
It never occurred to me to run track in high school. I played tennis and swam in the summer. In my 20s, though, I always felt like there was a runner in me, but she complained when I let her out (i.e. didn’t like it enough to run regularly). Once I found a fitness program that, quite honestly, changed my athletic life, I feel like I became a runner. I ran my first 10k at age 30 and ran my first marathon a year after I started running. I remember when I crossed the finish line of my first marathon, my thought was ‘When is my next one?’ I went on to run at least one marathon a year for a while, burned out a little bit, and chose to sign up for an Ironman. I know… that race includes a marathon. But, it was awesome! Enter my 40s, and that’s when I started having children. I found AMR when, after my first child, I was wondering where my running mojo went. Where was my inner runner? Through AMR, and some mother runners I found here in town, I learned about (and loved!) stroller running. Two years later, same story… running was slow to return, but I knew it would. Running is always ready. Again, enter AMR. I had the pleasure of participating on Team Dimity at Ragnar DC with the support of my husband left at home with two little ones. (Yes, I pumped in the van.). I was able to fall in love with running again, even completing a marathon with the mother runners I befriended after my first baby. My two kids have participated in multiple kids’ races associated with bigger races. So fun! Now, I have a baby again. I had my 3rd baby at age 46. It’s been amazing. Again, running has been slow to return. But, I have faith. It is there when I am ready. And I am feeling ready.
When I was a girl, I was told, running was not for girls, that it would ruin my knees and mess up my cycle so I could never have kids, why would I want to do something crazy like that. While I had very supportive parents for my academic endeavors, they were not enthusiastic for any athletic ones. I honestly think it was because I was a skinny girl. I was driven to dance class and academic bowl, but when I thought I would run track or cross-country, that seems like a bad idea. I secretly wanted to be a runner, but had no knowledge on how to do it and no one to emulate. I am a “new” runner. I always loved the idea of running and even doing it. I did try out for the cross-country team at my high school with basically zero experience. There was not a girls team, but just a couple of dedicated girls who I admired. More roadblocks then open doors. Times were different and thankfully the world of runners has changed. I love running and all of the things it has taught me as a person, mother and friend. It has made me stronger in all of those categories. I only wish I had found it sooner. But thank God I found it when I did. Thanks BAMRs.
When I was a girl in the late 70’s/early 80’s, we had to do the Presidential Physical Fitness test in gym every year. I was the fastest girl one year in my class for the shuttle run and 600 yard run. (I can’t remember which year!!) That sparked my love for running, which my uncle encouraged me to pursue. (My parents thought I was nuts!) I ran track and cross country from 6th grade through high school. Girls at that time were given almost the same amount of respect as the boys. I gave it up in college but picked it up again in 2000 when someone asked me to do a Half marathon with them! I gave it up again in 2003 while trying to get pregnant but picked it up again in 2010 when again I did another Half Marathon. I’m happy to say that I’m still at it, at 46 years old and just this year, I’m actually getting faster! I just did a Ragnar and going to try a Duathalon. I’m a BAMR! I hope my 3 kids will see that exercise is good for the body and follow in my footsteps.