Nicole Blades Final To celebrate our first four stops on the Tales From Another Mother Runner Tour (#TAMRTour for short…TAMR rhymes with BAMR, btw), we’re going to profile four essayists on the East Coast who are going to be celebrating with us in person. 

A few things before we get to Nicole Blades, who was a recent guest on our podcast. 

—Tish Hamilton and Bethany Meyer will be joining us in Freehold, NJ on tonight—RSVP here! because it’s not too late to join us!—and Nicole Blades and Alison Overholt, also recently on the podcast, will join us in West Hartford, CT tomorrow night on March 12 (RSVP here!)

Finally, if you can’t join us, but have purchased and found the time to read Tales From Another Mother Runner, we’d love, love it if you could take a minute a put up an honest review on Amazon, which, for reasons we don’t totally understand, is huge in spreading the TAMR word and helping women find the book. Thanks in advance!

 Back to Nicole Blades, mom to a freshly-minted six-year-old in West Hartford, Connecticut.

My running history: I’ve always been athletic (gymnastics, track, general running around), but I started getting into distance running over a decade ago, and grew more serious and dedicated about running as a sport in the last 7 years—which includes running half- marathons, shorter races, and sticking to a running outdoors year round plan.

My writing history: My love of storytelling comes from my father. The man can keep you locked in, waiting with eyes wide to hear exactly will happens next. As for the idea of putting those stories on paper, that one comes thanks to my third grade teacher Mr. Polka. He was so encouraging and interested in all my dreamed-up tales. He made me want to spill out all that was brewing in my head. I went into truth-based storytelling right out of university, and have been a working journalist for 18 years, with editor gigs at ESPN.com and Women’s Health magazine and bylines in publications like MORE, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan, and NYTimes.com.

But it’s when I sit down to write for me that I always come back to those imagined worlds. It’s as if I’m compelled to tell those stories. My debut novel, EARTH’S WATERS was published in 2007 (DC Books). But the big, crazy, exciting, golden, good news is: I just landed a two-book deal with Kensington! The first of my two novels, THE THUNDER BENEATH US, will be published in Fall 2016, and the second book should be out the following year. Basically, I’m writing this sentence from the moon. Be back soon.

My essay, “Taking the Title and Running With It” is: about ownership. Often we (especially women) feel like someone else has to give us permission or the license to own something. Too often we’re waiting for someone with more legitimacy or perceived authority to come along and grant us this thing we’re claiming. This essay basically says: False. You run. You’re a runner. Take it, because it’s yours already.

During this crazy winter in Connecticut: I still hit the road with my smart layers, although when the wind chill gets gangster, even I wonder what the hell I’m doing out here. But if the roads are treacherous or there’s black ice, I head to my local aquatic center to use the dreadmill. And recently I’ve started taking Barre classes and thoroughly enjoying it. Very good core work, which always helps the running.

One piece of gotta-have gear: It’s a toss-up between a hat and my iPhone, which I use it to listen to podcasts, track my pace and distance. Actually, on second thought, the iPhone edges out the hat by a hair. (heh.)

Recent memorable run: To be honest, the best runs have been the ones that started out with me dragging myself out the door because I’d rather be doing something else that cold morning. But once those first two minutes are behind me, I’m good. And by the time I reach the end of the run, I’m pretty much high-fiving and fist-bumping myself… But in my mind. I have neighbors.

Recent horrible run: I went out for what was supposed to be my long run on Sunday. The forecast said more snow was coming. (Enough!) I was 3 miles in when the snow came—early—and started blowing around. The streets got ugly quickly and I was running in the middle of the road dodging cars, so I moved to the sidewalk for safety. Big mistake. Ice-slush combo. I had two near-slips before calling it a wrap, cutting the run way short and heading home.

Next up on my running calendar: I’m mulling over trying a tri this year, plus sticking to my usual local 5Ks.