1. How long have you been running and why did you start? I’ve been running since fourth grade, so it’s been 13 years now! My school had a cross-country team, and my mom asked if I wanted to join it. I had no idea what cross country was, but when she said it was running, I instantly said yes. I liked running around at recess, so why wouldn’t I like running around for cross country?
Flash to five years later, and in middle school I had decided I didn’t really enjoy running, cross country or track. I was playing volleyball, however, and when I got to high school, I was convinced to join the track team as a way to train for volleyball. This ended up being the best decision I could have made, because I absolutely loved it, so much more than I could have imagined in middle school! I ran all four years and continued running in college too.
2. How long have you been part of TRL, and what drew you to the club in the first place? I joined TRL in September of 2024! I moved to Portland in August and had been trying out different run clubs to try to make new friends. I actually met a TRL member at another run club and was recommended to try out TRL because of how the club aligned with my trainingbackground and hopes to find a team.
3. What do you do when you’re not running (job, family, school…whatever it is you’d use to introduce yourself outside of running)? I work as an interior designer for a firm that specializes in education and healthcare. This ismy first job out of college, and it’s been a lot of training so far, but I’m learning so much andhave really been enjoying it.
Outside of work, I love to read, mostly fantasy and some sci-fi. I also like hiking or just going on really long and seemingly random adventure walks. I played volleyball for much of my life and although I haven’t played much since I’ve moved, I’m hoping to join a league or something at some point to continue with that as well.
4. What’s your favorite distance/type of run (5K, half-marathon, marathon, ultras, relays, track, trail, etc.)? In general, I enjoy distance runs the most. I love exploring new places on foot, and runs that are at least 10 miles are really good for that.
For racing, my favorites are the 4 x 4 and the 800. I love that the 800 is fast but still involves alot of strategy and thinking. The 4 x 4, while somewhat strategic, is more of an all-out sprint, but I love the energy exuded by the spectators and the sense of purpose and motivation that running for a team gives me.
5. Where is your favorite place to run in the greater Portland area? Forest Park! Throughout my life, friends and coaches always told me I would probably enjoy trail running, and Forest Park is the first place I was able to really do it! I love it in the summer when you make your way up the hill and the sun starts to wash the tips of the trees in a beautiful goldeny light as it sets. And how as you run back down, you get to see Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens on a clear day as the sky turns pink and purple. It’s super magical. Even in the winter, everyone’s headlamps bobbing through the trees makes for a fun and exhilarating adventure.
Another one of my favorite places is Willamette Boulevard. This is one of the only roads I actually enjoy doing out-and-backs on because it’s a beautiful view in both directions, whether you’re running towards St. Johns and the hills or towards downtown.
6. What’s your most memorable running experience (or experiences)? In high school, at the sectional meet my sophomore year, I was in the 4×4 and 4×8. The 4×8 wasreally memorable because we won by a hundredth of a second and beat our school record, qualifying for state. Then, in the 4×4 my team won again. Each of us ran sub-60 to run one of the top seven 4×4 times in my school’s history.
In college, my most memorable running experiences mostly consisted of random adventure runs. I went to school in Scranton, PA, a city that is old and run down, but not necessarily in a charming way, just in an old way.
Because of this, there are many places you can stumble upon randomly, and it doesn’t seem like you’re supposed to run there, but you do anyway, and it ends up being a super fun adventure.
One of these times, I was with teammates, running around a lake where we’d sometimes do long runs. I never liked long runs there, though, because the loop was only three miles, so we’d have to do it at least four times. One day, I decided to make a route that went off of the lake.
Because the lake is surrounded by mountains, if you go on any of the roads leading off of it, you’re just going up half the time and then turn around and come back down. That also isn’t that fun to me.
Studying the map, though, I found a route that looked good for a 12-mile loop, and convinced my teammates to join me for it.
The map said it was a road, but was really more of an ATV trail. There were lots of big rocks we had to be careful not to twist our ankles on, and, as it had just rained the night before, deep puddles spanning the whole width of the trail everywhere.
But I had committed to this route and was determined to see it through. We crossed a little bridge with a small waterfall where two of my teammates turned around. Now it was just me and one other girl. We followed a small stream to a reservoir at the top of a ski resort the next town over.
The trail then disappeared, and we realized we were surrounded by water on three sides and couldn’t move forward unless we went through it. So, we had to trudge through this super deep and fast-moving stream to get to the embankment on the other side, then climb a super-short and steep hill, where we found a set of abandoned and overgrown railroad tracks. We ran on these until they turned back into an ATV trail but there were active ATVs on this trail, so we had to be careful not to be run over by them.
Eventually the trail connected to a residential part of South Scranton, and we ran on normal roads back up to the lake and to our starting point.
One last super-memorable experience was in my sophomore year, when I had my first indoor track season (Covid prevented us from having an indoor season my freshman year). One of the facilities we ran at was Ocean Breeze on Staten Island. To this day, it is my favorite indoor track facility that I have ever been to. My favorite part about running there was that when I’d compete in the DMR, it would be the last race, and it would usually start at around 11pm.
After the race was over, the whole team would do a cooldown outside. The facility was just across the street from the ocean, so we could do our cooldown on the beach and stop to look at the waves and collect shells beneath the light of the moon. 🙂
7. What’s the best running advice you’ve ever received? Break up races with small goals to help accomplish the bigger goal. For example, in a cross-country race, instead of going in with the goal of running a certain time, you can tell yourself to run atleast ten paces with people who try to pass you, or to accelerate for three seconds on everyturn. If you consistently push yourself with small goals within your race and use them to racethe people around you, you will naturally accomplish your bigger goals as well.
8. Tell us one fun fact, hidden talent, or something we don’t know about you, but should? I have an identical twin, but we were born on different days!