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Chris is a Runner’s World+ member. Join him and thousands of others chasing their goals with day-by-day training plans, expert advice from editors and coaches, and unlimited digital access. We regularly feature members online and in print!
My entire life has changed since my wife and I began running in 2014. I started running to become healthier. With four young children and weighing over 200 pounds, I couldn’t keep up with them. I felt lazy and got tired easily.
With my first training run in 2014, I could only run half a mile and had to start walking. We trained for five months for our first 5K, which was a Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Mother’s Day. From that point on, we kept challenging ourselves by increasing our distance and running 10Ks and then half marathons. By 2016, we were running our first Pittsburgh Marathon and finished in a time of 4:50.
Then, we experienced another amazing adventure in 2016. Our oldest daughter, who was nine years old at the time, wanted to raise money for “sick kids” at the Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. We wanted to help her achieve her wish of helping others, so we planned a fundraiser with running as a major component of the adventure. My wife and I planned out a run between Washington, DC and Pittsburgh along rail-trails and towpaths. The 335-mile run took us 11 days to complete, and accomplished it relay-style.
Along the way, we entertained our kids by taking them to local museums, historic forts, they became Junior Rangers with the National Park Service and cheered their mom and dad the entire way! My wife and I each ran 6.5 marathons during our 11-day adventure and raised $5,000 dollars for the UPMC Children’s Hospital Foundation for our daughter. None of us will ever forget that experience.
RW+ is an amazing resource for an all-things running junkie like me. I really enjoy reading the inspirational stories from others who have overcome life struggles by running. I like learning about new gear and gadgets and appreciate the expert testers from RW who share their experiences. I like reading how the elites train and what they eat.
I run because I want to keep up with my active kids, and quite honestly, I want to run long enough so I can keep up with my grandchildren in 30 years from now. I run to be healthier, and as a family, we are all healthier because of our smarter life choices of running, eating right and staying positive. My kids enjoy running now, and as a family, we ran our first family 5K at a 2018 turkey trot.
With a demanding full-time job, four children, three pets, a wife training to run her first 100 miler, and her demanding full-time job, I’ve found it is best if I run early in the morning when no one else is awake. My favorite run ever was a 3 a.m. run in total silence and solitude, but I usually start my runs before 6:00 a.m. five times a week.
I like to change my routes. I don’t mind hills, and living in western Pennsylvania, we have no way around running up or down a hill. Being the CEO of a conservation land trust, I enjoy running on some of the conservation areas we have protected. I can run from my house to our closest nature preserve, which is about two miles away, and then from there, run on our trails that connect with municipal park trails that go on for miles and miles.
Brooks shoes. Adrenaline, Launch, Levitate, Ricochet…I’ve tried many different ones. I rotate between two different pairs. Love the comfort of those shoes! I also never run without my Garmin Vivoactive HR watch, and on long runs, I gotta have those nip guards!
My goal is to qualify and run the Boston Marathon in 2021. My current marathon PR is 4:27, so I only need to shave off 1 hour and 17 minutes of my time. I gave myself two years to accomplish this goal and started consulting with a nutritionist and running coach in 2019. I hope to qualify this year by running the Erie Marathon on September 13, 2020, one of the flattest courses in the country. Time needed is 3:10…wish me luck!
Caroline’s enthusiasm for enriching the run community originates from engaging with her local run specialty store customers, where she still works part-time.