A runner? Me?!

I grew up within an hour's drive of NASA, yet never thought about becoming an astronaut. Still, for the first 42-plus years of my life, walking on the moon seemed more likely than me ever running.

But, well, things change. Getting slimmer became a priority. So I began walking. A lot. Eventually, I started running. And now I've got a shelf full of medals and racing bibs, plus more safety pins than any person could ever possibly need.

I've written about all of this, too.

• First came a how-I-became-a-runner story for this site that turned into a Huffington Post column.
• Then a story on running 1,000 miles in 2017 was posted on Medium and became a column on the Runner's World website.
• Next, I wrote about the challenge of my second marathon; this story was posted on Medium in 2020.