Last Wednesday, Dec 6 I found out that I was chosen to be an Ambassador to the Youngstown Marathon. I couldn’t contain my excitement; I was ecstatic….I cried tears of joy. To think that I….the little girl who grew up loving all sports is still getting to do what she loves at 38 years old! Let me go back a step – I grew up playing summer softball since I was in Kindergarten, starting with tee-ball, parents pitch…and so on. In Middle School I ran track in 7th and 8th grade. There were no fall sports for girls in the 1990’s (we didn’t have soccer or volleyball). I remember conditioning in the winter months for middle school track and all we did was laps in the hallways at the old Austintown Middle School. Me and another girl, Jenn, were the only ones that could run the entire practice without stopping and we always “lapped” the other girls in the hallways. Next thing I knew it was time for the first meet and I found myself running the 1 mile and 100 m dash. I remember being kind of upset that I had to run the mile, it was SO far back then! HA Once I got to Austintown Fitch High School I played volleyball, basketball, and softball leaving my running days behind….except for when the coaches “punished” us during conditioning or because of a bad game the night before. At Fitch I broke a few basketball records (leading rebounder girls & boys in a career, number of rebounds in a game, and number of rebounds in a season. But my true love was volleyball because it did NOT come easy for me….I had to work at it, but I lovedthe strategy behind volleyball plays….I even loved defense! That led me to Thiel College where I started all four years for the Lady Tomcats and broke 8 school records as a middle hitter! I majored in Mathematics, along with Secondary Education. After graduating from Thiel College; I coached for numerous years at Ravenna High School, where I currently teach (year 17). I have coached Varsity Volleyball and Softball, Winter cheerleading, and middle school girl’s basketball. After retiring from coaching, I realized that I had 2-3 extra hours per evening which led me to my running career starting in 2012…..I haven’t stopped since…which leads me to today and this blog.
Hope you liked my introduction ~ stay tuned, much more to come.
XoXo Christina
Just a little silliness after today’s cold run
@yomarathon #runtheyo
My entire life I never felt like I truly fit in….Sure, I fit in on my summer softball team growing up. Of course, I fit in playing high school varsity sports. But, I “fit in” during the season, at practice, and/or during the game. But outside of the season or during the regular school day, I never really fit in. I was the girl that was socially awkward growing up. It was so bad that the first month of ninth grade, I ate lunch in a bathroom stall! Ugh, because none of my middle school friends had the same lunch period that I did. I always had a few close friends growing up in grade school, then in high school and even in college I always had a core group of friends. I don’t want anyone to read this and think that I never had any friends. However, I recently noticed a change in myself. I realized that I was contacting other people to meet me to run. For the past 5 years, I’ve always ran alone in my own solitude….music blaring, completely alone. Running with others has given me a new freedom to running; it makes you not feel so alone. It definitely makes the time go by a lot faster, and the miles fly by. It’s been a fun challenge to run with people faster than me; there is no way that I will ever quit, stop, or give up….therefore, the only option is to just keep running and keep up with them. I have also noticed that my demeanor has changed at races. I used to be the woman sitting alone in the corner stretching and reading a magazine pre-race. Now, I am trying to socialize more and enjoy the other runner’s company. Don’t worry, I’m still doing all the weird “pre-race” rituals that we each do! HA
christinatoth8 