http://www.getstrongrunstrong.com/

Get Strong Run Strong, Ambler, PA (2026)

11/18/2024

"In times of stress, women seek out community." --Amy Morin, 13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do

This weekend fueled my soul ❤️. Cheering for my friends near and far who CRUSHED their goals while cheering on 7,000 women taking up space in the streets of Savannah was so empowering. Women are amazing, and women runners -- the best ❤️.

Witnessing the marathon would have been enough, but I'm lucky to have also explored the city and its complicated history (that we're still grappling with in the present -- shout-out to our insightful and astute teacher-turned-tour guide at the Owens-Thomas house for making this crystal clear).

The icing on the cake was spending time with & , crying with after she reached a big running milestone, meeting other runners from all across the country, seeing another RRCA rep , game changer , sharing Ubers with and her adorable mother, and getting a long run in with blast from my past !

"If you're ever losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon." Kathrine Switzer

11/11/2024

Congrats to all the Rocky Runners this past weekend, especially my client, Elizabeth!

The Rocky Run had 3 distance choices: a 5k, a 10-miler, or a combination of the 2 for a half marathon. Elizabeth chose the half marathon to challenge herself; she had never completed the distance.

When Elizabeth contacted me back in April, she wanted to do something big with her running, but like many runners, she would train, get injured, and then be overly cautious when training again. She was looking for someone to push her out of her comfort zone while keeping her healthy. She wanted to GET STRONG so she could RUN STRONG.

And that's exactly what she did 💯💪👊.

Elizabeth was so consistent, curious, and coachable these past 7 months despite work and extended travel. In addition to building her mileage, we added speed work and running drills. We worked on her cadence and her fueling. She kept up her strength training and seeing her PT when necessary. She ran a 5k tune-up race in the buildup to prepare for race day logistics. She executed the race plans perfectly.

In short, Elizabeth saw herself as a very ordinary runner, and we turned her into a rockstar 🎆.

You don't have to have innate talent; you just have to be willing to work hard and make changes.

I can't wait to see what her next challenge will be!

10/21/2024

Race recap #5 (final one, promise 😜): The PT journey

One of the first people I messaged after crossing the finish line was one of the most important people in getting me to the starting line feeling my best: 💯 at .

I met Dr. Brooke about 2 years ago (time has never righted itself since 2020, so don't quote me on this 🤣). After running through several pelvic floor physical therapists, I knew I struck gold 🥇.

If you've been following me for a while, you know I've struggled with pelvic floor and related issues for basically forever. I had 3 kids in 3 years, and my body did whatever the opposite of "bouncing back" is. I've had leaking and hip pain after every big race, even if during the race I felt good.

Dr. Brooke is the first PT I've worked with who never made me feel like I reached my limit with what could be fixed 💯💯💯. I warned her I would be a challenge, not because I wasn't a good PT student (I'm the best. I will follow every direction. A+ PT student 😁), but because I had tried so many things and nothing seemed to work completely or long-term. Brooke took a holistic, always open-minded approach. She always had something new I could try, or an adjustment to implement. She worked WITH me, not just on me. She's practical, advising me for short-term (right before a race) and long-term (what to work on after before the next training cycle). Even if she may have thought it, she never implied that I was crazy or asking too much of my body (running 3 marathons in 3 months 🤪 while staying pain-free). And did I mention she's so fun to talk to? 😃

My personal experience with Dr. Brooke is why I refer basically everyone to her! She's a mom who gets it in addition to being at the top of her game 🔥.

Completing my 8th marathon without peeing myself and without hip pain has been more rewarding than the time PR, and I can't thank her enough for helping me achieve my A goal of "sitting at dinner without pain" the night of the marathon. 🎆❤️🙌

10/18/2024

Race recap #4: the second half

The second half was easier to run from a logistical standpoint. Less thinking, more flowing. I didn't have any more splits to aim for, which made the second half feel longer, but I also didn't worry as much about pace. Every time I did look at my watch, I saw 7:55. That felt holdable to me. I kept taking my gels every 25 minutes, grabbed my last water bottle from my hubby, and got a personal cheer and a laugh from who told me I was beating Keira D'Amato (I thought she was being funny, since I didn't know that Keira had dropped out early on).

I kept waiting for the dark thoughts to come, the feeling of wanting to quit, of feeling like I couldn't keep this pace. I've felt this many times before, including at mile 15 last year. I know some tricks to work through it now 😉, but it never came. Yes, I got tired around 22 miles when I could see mile 24 across the way but I still had to run the loop out and back to get there (that is mentally abusive at that point!) but I still felt strong. I knew I just needed to keep moving and that I would be there soon.

When I did pass mile 24, I felt relieved. I picked a few people to pass, tried to kick it up a gear (but without much success) and kept thinking about how lucky I was to be here and feeling this good (relatively speaking) at this point in yet another marathon. Quick mental math assured me I would be sub-3:30 if I could just hold on. And once I hit 25, I was celebrating.

I did not dread the last (only) Hill this year. In fact, I welcomed it. My glutes were strong and ready, and I knew I was so so close to the finish. I gave that hill everything I had 💯 and then flew down to the finish line.

I've heard over and over to not look at your watch at the finish but I couldn't resist: 3:27:39. I had achieved my A goal, one I had set for myself 5 years ago when I was coaching myself. Beat it, actually (3:28 was the time I had set). And more than 7 minutes cushion with the updated qualifying times for Boston so 2026 looks pretty good 🤞🤞🤞.

Yes, I had set a time goal years ago and I finally hit it, but what I'm more proud of is how much going for this goal has changed me.

10/17/2024

Race recap #3: the first half (thanks to everyone indulging my recaps a la Emma Bates 🤣)

Races have more meaning when you attach non-goal related importance to them. Those other intangible, personal reasons for running can carry you through the toughest miles. This race, I was running for people I know who couldn't run, either due to injury, or because their life was tragically cut short. I intentionally wore yellow in remembrance. 💛

This race was also a celebration of all the work I've put into myself in the last 5 years. I've grown so much since I committed to myself and my journey to get strong so I could run strong. (I live my business name 💯).

I had memorized the splits from my coach & I fully trusted her plan. All of my workouts pointed to the possibility of running sub-3:30, and I truly believed I could.

I arrived at the race at 6 am, sat on the grass, chatted with a few runners, texted my people, and asked myself WTF. The nervous energy was in full swing, and I thought I must be absolutely crazy for signing up to do this again.

At 6:30, I ate my banana, passed an extra one to another runner, and got in line for the porta potty. I met another runner from England and just made it to the corral at 7:20.

If you've ever run Chicago, you know that GPS is completely unreliable for at least the first 5 or so miles. I intended to run by effort and not worry about manually clocking miles, since I did that last year and found it stressful (and I kept missing them).

I crushed my pacing in the first 5k, coming in just 3 seconds under the planned time 👊. Then I got a little hot and came through the 10k about a minute under, but I didn't panic, because I felt great! And then I was almost 2 minutes under at the 15k, so I corrected myself (unbeknownst to me at the time, a little too much), and came in just under the planned half time. I thought I had executed the first half perfectly, but looking at my splits after, I can see I probably gave anyone tracking at home a bit of a panic attack 🤣. I know my poor bottle handlers were sweating! I was blissfully unaware, and I'm glad I was, so that I didn't waste energy worrying about it.

10/16/2024

Race recap #2: Chicago Days 1 & 2

World Majors Marathons attract a lot of runners and a lot of hype. They're held in exciting cities with unlimited options of things to do. This makes them thrilling and also overstimulating. And then there's the packing and travel...

Since I've traveled for a few marathons now, I had a better grasp on packing, but it's still stressful. Luckily everything went smoothly and I remembered all the important items.

Once in Chicago, I wanted to do every shake out run and see every attraction and meet other runners and live up the 72 hours without parenting, but none of that would be a good decision for me. I need my alone time. So I had to be very choosy about how I spent my socializing.

is used to my high-maintenance racing needs at this point, so she was the perfect person to accompany us this weekend 😁. We spent a reasonable amount of time at the expo, I skipped all the shakeout runs where she lived her best life, and then we shared a laughter-filled afternoon at our 2nd live show. Then I ditched her to watch Emily in Paris season 4 (the worst season) and eat pasta in my hotel room.

For the first time ever, nerves didn't really kick in until the day before, and then they hit in waves. There's so much to get right to race a marathon well, and the thought of the task at hand and how long you've worked toward it can take your breath away and send you spiraling. I was so grateful I was able to limit these feelings to the day before this time, and that I didn't let them become all-consuming. There was A LOT of mental work and experience that went into it!

10/15/2024

Race recap part #1: The build

This was my most aggressive build, but it didn't feel as overwhelmingly difficult as previous builds. I had some really awesome races leading up to this one, which helped me practice what I wanted to do in Chicago.

✅ July 4th 4-miler: I learned that I can push HARD and not give up if I don't focus on pace but on effort.
✅ Paris Olympic Marathon in August: Huge confidence boost that I could run 4 hours easily, having only done 16 miles leading up to it, I walked a lot of it, it was so so hilly, and it was the middle of the night in another country and time zone after I had food poisoning on the flight over. I also learned that miles 21+ are hard no matter the pace, so might as well get it over sooner!
✅ Annapolis 10-miler in August: learned I could push through nausea (and what caused the nausea to avoid in the future) and ran 19 total that day.
✅ Philadelphia Distance Run in September: felt calm and confident instead of ridiculously anxious which is usually my go-to. Practiced superb pacing and running the last stretch strong and not giving in to fatigue, which served me so well in the marathon.

Other notes about this build:

👉I let the paces come to me in workouts instead of chasing them.
👉I fueled and hydrated better than ever before, during, and after runs.
👉I chilled out a bit 🤣. I focused on controlling everything I possibly could, and then I let the rest go instead of feeling anxious about all the things I couldn't control.
👉I made it a point to have more FUN. (We'll always have our goodbye to summer adventure night run 😁.)

And the biggest difference in racing & long runs this go-round:

❤️I FINALLY trusted myself to meet whatever moment I was in, and that freed me up to flow with whatever came my way.❤️

Big thanks to my training buddies throughout the build
&
So many miles chasing the blonde braid and sharing stories and laughs with the two of you brought out the best in me ❤️❤️❤️.

10/14/2024

Marathon #8 ✅

I knew I wanted to come back to Chicago to run the marathon again. Last year was an amazing experience, and now that I had a better idea of the course and logistics, I wanted to capitalize on that knowledge with the fitness I've built since.

And capitalize I did 💯.

This is the first race in my memory where I have no "if onlys". As runners, we're rarely satisfied. "If only I had run 10 seconds faster to be under X minutes" or "If only I had taken that other gel" or "If only I had trained a little harder" --- the "if onlys" keep us hungry for more, but they can also rob us of the joy of finishing another race.

I have only pure joy for this one. 😍🥳

Throughout the race, I kept telling myself that I was so proud of me for doing so many things right, and that I was so lucky that so many things I couldn't control (weather, not tripping, having enough space to move this year, etc) were going in my favor. When it started to get hard at the end, I reminded myself that it's rare for this much to align so well and that I should take advantage of it because you never know when that will happen (if ever!) again. No point in wasting a near perfectly executed race just because you were getting tired.

At mile 25, an announcer said, "the hardest miles are behind you, time to celebrate" and I couldn't agree more. That last 1.2 was far from easy, but at that point I knew I would finish, and with a damn good time. The hardest miles are the ones where you have to make decisions, and at mile 25, all you have to do is keep running.

3:27:39 👊
2nd BQ 👊
2nd Chicago Marathon 👊
5-minute lifetime PR 👊

More race recap later, but for now, celebrating ❤️🎆

10/07/2024

This picture is of my 5k splits 5 years ago today. 👀 (Peep that retro Garmin!)

This pace was me pushing, reaching, racing.

I was doing so many things wrong. But I was determined to get better. To keep running. To move forward. To LEARN.

I've now run a few marathons with paces faster than this. 🤯My progress did not happen by luck or accident. It happened from 1) a dogged belief in my potential and 2) lots of hard work.

I had to seek knowledge and find people who would help me. I had to make decisions and sacrifices. I had to change to make changes.

As I prepare for my 8th marathon this weekend, the word "gratitude" keeps popping up in my head.

I'm so grateful for taking the steps I did 5 years ago.
I'm so grateful for my health that has allowed me to build my fitness.
I'm so grateful for all of the wonderful runners and runner-friendly people in my life who support me in one way or another.

I'm so dang grateful that I get to do this. 💯💯💯

Running doesn't get easier; you just get more resilient.

CHItown, I can't wait to celebrate with you ❤️.

09/16/2024

thanks to another great !

The medal this year is so sparkly! Yes, that's blue glitter! 💎

My athletes and friends had strong performances, the weather was *almost* perfect (just a tad cooler would have been awesome), and I felt really good until the last mile (working through some theories with my coach on that).

No matter what happens in 4 weeks, this was a confidence booster 💯💯💯. I managed a small time PR, but the real PR was in my strength entering the last 5k and holding it down 💪 as best I could.

Every race is the opportunity to learn something new, make adjustments, reevaluate what's working and what could be improved. I'm grateful for finishing yet another race this year ❤️ and discovering more about myself in the process 👏.

08/29/2024

Big thanks to the organizers of the and the for such a beautiful course and well-organized race last Sunday! These professional photos were free to participants, and the tech premium hooded pull over was one of the nicest pieces of race swag I've ever gotten included with registration (but you have to finish the race to actually get it -- even more incentive)!

If you're looking for a race late August next year, PUT THIS ON YOUR CALENDAR!! Next year will be the 50th anniversary of this iconic race and it's sure to be good!

08/24/2024

Meetup at the bib pick up!

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