My Sliding Door Moment...

If you would have told my 19 year old self that I'd be on the verge of finishing the six Abbott World Marathon Majors and representing the series as an Ambassador 20 years on....I think I would have stared in disbelief from the comfort of my couch in the Sigma Kappa sorority house. And promptly turned my head back to binge watching TV and eating endless bowls of cereal. I mean, I wasn't completely inactive. I was a cheerleader and dancer growing up, and exercised to keep the extra collegiate calories at bay (very unsuccessfully the first year, I confess). But I wasn't an athlete or particularly motivated to be super healthy.

Oh College, when you can work out and then eat a bag of Doritos and drink a 2 liter of Coke.

I didn't even ever run until college, and only then out of sorority peer pressure. That stayed true through graduate school at Michigan State University, when I met my future husband. Then, I had my sliding door moment. For any Gwenyth Paltrow fans, you will know this references the awesome movie Sliding Doors, about what would happen if ONE event changed the path of your life (excellent movie, BTW, you should watch it). On our honeymoon, my husband woke up one day and said "I had a dream last night that you ran a marathon." I laughed. I had not run more than maybe 6-7 miles at that point. And had no intentions of going further. He was the "runner" at that point in our family, having just finished his first marathon, the Detroit Free Press Talmer Bank Marathon. But, it was like a tiny pebble in my shoe. He put it there and I couldn't ignore it no matter how much I tried.

How could I let this guy down?

So, about a year later, I ran my first marathon. It was horrible. I can discuss that later, when I talk more about my individual races....but let me just say I threw up more in one day than I ever have in my life. So of course, I had to do it better. So I ran another one. And did worse. Then I got mad. And, this, my friends...is how it really sneaks up on you. That pursuit of the race you know you can run. You know it's in there. But for some reason, it doesn't happen. For me, it was several "unseasonably hot" 80 degree plus days on race day. Maybe it's an injury. Or a bad decision on fuel. But all of the sudden, you're several marathons deep...and you start looking for a bigger challenge.

I stopped for a while after those first two. Had our babies, etc. But I always knew I would get back to it. And while I started back slowly after my break, I revved back up and decided it would be fun to try a marathon during a big vacation - Alaska. Combining two things I love so much - running marathons and travelling - was an amazing experience and I knew from that point on, my preference was the running vacation. It's been several years of travelling around now to do these things. Sometimes with kids in tow. Sometimes with kids AND parents in tow. Sometimes, just Brandon and I. But it has always been a truly amazing way to experience a place. The culture, the pockets of neighborhoods or famous avenues, the hospitality. Its a wonder that has become addicting to me.

If you subscribe to the theory that is the premise for Sliding Doors, you'd believe I would have gotten here anyway. Maybe that's true. But it sure has been one amazing transformation and I'm grateful for this journey every day I'm on it.

7 Years, 6 Marathons, 1 Dream...and then I became an Abbott World Marathon Majors Ambassador

So today I had an experience that distinctly reminded me of opening a wedding gift that had come to my house just before our wedding several years ago. Back then, my mother was over and when I opened up the box I squealed with excitement. She jumped "what is it?!" And I said "I don't know! But it's from TIFFANYS!!!" I had that same excitement today when I got a notification that indicated I had been selected to be an Ambassador for the Abbott World Marathon Majors. I immediately called my husband and blurted out my news before he could really say a word. I hadn't told him I'd applied, so he had no idea what I was talking about. He said "That's great babe. (slight awkward pause) What does that mean?" And I replied with dizzying speed "I don't really know yet, but isn't it AMAZING?!?"

The details didn't really matter at that point. The excitement comes from the idea that in some capacity I know that I get to share my experiences and information about something that I love to my core: running marathons all over the place. And that *is* pretty amazing.

I've also previously considered writing a blog about my personal journey to finish all six of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, because people are genuinely curious about it. This is a perfect reason for me to jump in. I've finished four of the six so far (the Virgin Money London Marathon, the BMW Berlin Marathon, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the TCS New York City Marathon), and am set to run the final two this year (the Tokyo Marathon and the B.A.A. Boston Marathon - as a team member of the MEB Foundation, which I will certainly be blogging about soon). A few years ago I decided I'd try to do them all by the time I turned 40 this summer (yes, did you think I'd be born in a different season?) in part because I enjoy setting false deadlines and also in part because I don't know how my body is going to change as I keep getting older!

I'm so honored to have been selected for this opportunity and in the coming days I'll be sharing more of what that distinction means as well as diving into my own journey with this crazy hobby of mine.