I remember a few months back reading an article about coming in last place in races and how even though you finish last there is no shame in that. No one ever wants to come in last, especially not someone very competitive like me. But I’m here to tell you, I did it yesterday and [...]
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I'm a stay-at-home mom of three very energetic boys, 9 year old twins and a 4 year old. I played basketball and volleyball in junior high, then a little rec softball in college, but since then I hadn't done much in the way of sports until my friend convinced a bunch of us to train for a 5K together so she could cross it off her bucket list. Considering the thought of running more than a minute straight seemed like an impossibility I wasn't sure I'd be able to. But we used the Couch to 5K program and in 9 weeks time I was able to run 3.1 miles without walking. My first 5K and I was hooked. After that my husband and I teamed up to compete in some adventure races and found that we absolutely loved working as a team and using those opportunities to have really fun and exciting dates. Now I just keep increasing my distance and training for more interesting and challenging races. I hope to get more into biking and eventually do a duathlon and then someday a triathlon. I especially love the more creative and fun races like mud runs, Zombie dashes, the Scaredy Pants 5K adventure race. The crazier the race is, the less I feel like I'm working really hard. |
| Age: | 40 |
| Hometown: | Wyoming, MI |
| What‘s your history? | |
| Tell us about a memorable race experience. | My favorite race to date would be the inagural GR Urban Adventure race. After only running for one year and only competing in 5Ks, who would have thought I could finish a 4 hour race that included approximately 15 miles of biking and 5 miles of running, not to mention challenges. Plus it was a really fun and unique date for my husband and I to work as a team. |
| What are nutritional tips you use to gain optimum performance? | The best tool that helped me stay on top of nutrition was logging my food and exercise on myfitnesspal.com. It was my greatest tool for helping me lose weight and get in shape. |
| Give us some inspiration! | My kids motivate me. I remember a couple months after my youngest was born, one of my 6 year olds asked me to chase him and I couldn't even run across my front yard. Now I can run close to 15 miles and my kids ask me to race them on their bikes and as of now I can still sprint faster than they can ride. I've also lost 30 pounds of baby weight and dropped my cholesterol over 60 points. Plus at 40 years old, I'm doing something that both my parents love to gush at how proud they are of me. |
| What is your single most important goal this year? | I have two major goals for 2012. My first is to finish the 5/3 Riverbank Run 25K with no walking. My second goal is to break 30 minutes in a 5K (I'm so close!) |
| Complete this sentence: The thing I love most about competing is______________________. | that sense of pride I get knowing I've just done something I didn't think I'd be able to do. |
Author Archives: Lori OttThe Makings of a ChampionToday is my youngest son’s 5th birthday. He was quite the surprise for this family and I remember when he was about 6 months old one of his older brothers asked me to chase him across the front yard. Now up until that point, I’d never been a runner, but I’ve always considered myself kind [...]
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When Life Derails YouI had such a good thing going for a couple of months. I had a solid plan established for training for my first triathlon. I teamed up with a fellow Champion to strengthen my swimming, which was my weak point. (Those crazy triathletes will do things like make you wake up at 4:30 AM to [...]
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They Live What They SeeThe other day my four year old was talking to me about what he wants to do for his birthday in February. Most kids his age want a theme party or a trip to Chuck E. Cheese, lots of presents, you know the drill. But he said to me, “Mom, for my birthday I want [...]
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My Bucket List Goal Makes Fitness FunI don’t travel much, in fact the only time I’ve left the country is to hang out in Canada for a little while. But shortly after I started running a couple of years ago, I thought it would be kind of fun to incorporate running when I travel into a little Bucket List goal.
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The Family that Runs (and gets dirty) TogetherToday was my second attempt at the Grand Rapids Mud Run. Last year my husband and I ran it with some friends for fun, this year he decided he was going to go all out competitive and see how well he could do at it. But even better, our 4.5 year old decided he was [...]
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If you don’t have a goal to work towards, you might just stop workingLast year I had a goal I was working on the entire year. That goal was to do minimum 30 minutes of cardio every day for the whole year. I came pretty close to my goal. I missed some days, but when I totaled up my records I averaged 29.7 minutes a day for the [...]
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Meeting My Goal – Thanks to a Fellow ChampionI had two fitness goal set for myself at the beginning of this year. The first was to finish the River Bank Run 25K (up to that point I’d only ever run a 10K), I was able to do that last month. The second was to finish a 5K race in under 30 minutes. Thanks [...]
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Why Just Race, When You Can Adventure Race.This past weekend my husband and I competed in our fourth Grand Rapids Urban Adventure Race. It was our first time competing together for Team Priority Health. For a while there I was worried that the mud would never come out of our beautiful lime green team shirts.
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As Ready as I’ll Ever Be!I just got back from the Priority Health 25K Cycling Tour. It’s the first time that I’ve really checked out the course that I have in store for me next weekend.
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