Don't Call it a Comeback

If I had to chart the last decade of my running, it would look like a snapshot of the elevation of some mountain races I’ve run. Up. Down. Up. Proof that progress is never linear. Right now, I’m on the up. I’m not sure you can call it a comeback, because I’m trying to avoid the outlook that I’m trying to “get back” to something. Really, I’m just riding a new wave of enjoyment with running, thanks largely to my daughter. 

But to understand how I got here, I’ve got to go back. 

At the beginning of 2023 I was very much burned out. My body was feeling the effect of pushing a business to survive the pandemic. I was training, racing, hosting retreats and trying to hold it all together until I could land the plane at the end of 2023 and officially step away from Rise Run Retreat. I made it, but barely. 

Most of 2024 was me recovering. I took things off my plate. I said ‘no’ to a lot. I raced once (Mt. Washington Road Race). I turned towards the things I’d neglected: faith and family. I think my body and my mind needed to heal. As a result my fitness suffered. It had to. You can’t drive your body to perform when it is screaming for rest. There was a reason it wasn’t responding to training in 2023 and it wasn’t perimenopause (which, I had mistakenly blamed) it was overall mental and physical fatigue. It was life stress. I didn’t need hormone therapy, I needed to rest. So I walked, lifted, hiked, rode my ElliptiGO, and did very little running. 

At the very end of 2024, I signed up for a race on a whim. It involved snow and mountains and the underworld. I emerged feeling triumphant. I felt so much joy on that day and realized that I hadn't fallen out of love with running, my body hadn’t betrayed me, I wasn’t perimenopausal. I just needed to recover. It took a year. But as I headed into 2025, I started to add more to my running calendar: I signed up for White Lake Ultras. It felt like my body didn’t want to run fast, but I could hang out in Zone 2 all day long. An ultra seemed like a good way to get myself back to running. 

Around the time I started building miles for White Lake, my daughter told me she wanted to run Race the Cog, a mountain race in the Northeast Delta Dental Mountain Series that goes straight up Mt. Washington for 2.7 miles next to The Cog Railway. We trained together for the race and once she did that one, she wanted to do another. Her enthusiasm was contagious, so I signed up for Loon and Race to the Top of Vermont. By the time the season wrapped in August of 2025 I’d scored in the series and won a couple hundred dollars (thanks to Tom and Ellen Raffio!). 

That fall, I coached a group of homeschooled high schoolers who wanted to run cross country, but for various reasons (like living in a town that doesn’t offer the sport), but couldn’t. I put together a “team” and an eight week season that included several local 5Ks. Watching them transform in those eight weeks was a huge inspiration and brought me so much joy. And thanks to them, I also raced a few 5Ks and came within reach of a sub-20 minute 5K.

I came to the end of last year feeling like I was turning a corner and that, if I stayed consistent and kept pushing myself, I could get back to racing and running fast. I bought a pair of Alphaflys (nothing says “I’m still trying” like a $300 pair of shoes) and a Believe Training Journal. 

The energy I brought to my running in 2026 felt similar to 2018, which was the year I decided to stop thinking of myself as a “mom who runs” and start thinking of myself as an “athlete.” I want to see what I can do as a master’s athlete. I may never be faster than I was at 37 and that’s OK, but if I can be competitive as a 44 year old–to me that feels like a win. 

I wrote a few goals in my training journal and mapped out my race calendar (which I largely kept to myself, since I spent most of the spring off social media). I started with two 5Ks in April, built to the National Mountain Running Championships in June and then settled into the Delta Dental Mountain Series over the summer. 

My training wasn’t nearly as voluminous as it once was, but I seemed to find a happy place averaging about 30 miles a week running and 18 miles a week on the ElliptiGO. I topped out at 80 miles right before the National Mountain Champs, with 40 miles of running and 40 miles on the ElliptiGO. And I mostly hang out in Zone 2: my easy run pace averages 9:37 min/mi. My hard efforts have been a combination of mountain runs (in the Belknaps and hot laps on Gunstock), and track workouts with the Seacoast Track Club–where I felt completely out of my league, but have been pulled along by the encouragement of the ‘fast kids.’ All this has produced some results I’m really proud of. 

Yet, chasing results isn’t what got me out there, it was honestly people. First my daughter, wanting to join me in the mountains. Then the homeschooled high schoolers wanting to run cross country. Then a friend from STC inviting me to a workout. Focus on the people and the performances follow. Funny how that works. 

Halfway through the second lap of the Mountain Running Championships, as I was closing in on the summit of Mt. Sunapee, a friend saw me. She later told me that she’d never seen me so happy. And I think that’s been indicative of this entire season. It has been filled with JOY and very little pressure. . Maybe that’s the gift of being a masters runner: you’re wise enough to know that the people and the process will always be more important than the performance–and that takes all the pressure off. 

Whatever the formula, hopefully I can keep riding this wave. In 2027, I’ll turn 45. If you’re tracking age groups by five year increments, I’ll bump up an age group. Which I don’t mind. I’m still out here! I’m proud of what my body is doing. What a mercy to have a strong, capable, fit body! 

Maybe I’ll get faster, maybe I won’t. Either way, I’m having fun trying. 

2026 PRs: 

Sunapee Scramble: 1st in 40-44 age group and 26th overall

Loon Mountain Race: 3 min faster than 2025

Race to The Top of Vermont: 30 seconds faster than last year and 1st in 40-49 age group

Jay Peak: 1st female overall with a historically competitive time (and PR on a Strava technical downhill segment)

Northeast Delta Dental Mountain Series: Overall Female Winner

2026 Running Highlights: 

Not quitting or modifying a really hard track workout in insane humidity in July. I am the slowest. It’s humbling. 

Cheering for Sophia up Upper Walking Boss. 

Hearing Sophia get emotional at my win at Jay Peak. 

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