.:about me:.

I’m Melissa and I live in Vermont. I absolutely LOVE it here. Yes, it gets cold in the winters but I can tolerate the cold. The other three seasons make up for the long cold winters. If you have you ever seen Stowe in October then you would know what I am talking about. Absolutely beautiful!

I married my best friend, Alan in October 2008. We met in the fall of 2005 after he moved to Vermont from Colorado. He met me a few weeks after his move and has been stuck in VT ever since! I am sure he wouldn’t have it any other way!

My wedding present from Alan was a dog. It took us almost a year and a half before we found the right one to fit our family.  January 2010 We rescued a Husky mix, Sirius Wiki (pronounced sear us – wicky) or better known as SWP, from Canada.

this is SWP at 4 weeks when we went to Canada to pick him out from his litter.

I have always ran, but haven’t always been a runner. I played field hockey and lacrosse in high school and did track in middle school, running came with the territory of playing sports. After graduating from high school my running was very sporadic. In college I would go for a run but the runs were short in distance and few and far in between. I mainly would go for a run to try to stay in shape.

In May 2008 I signed up and ran the Keybank City Marathon. I thought it would be a great way to slim down for my upcomming wedding. After training for months I completed my first 1/2 marathon (2:27:44) I took a lot of time off after that and ran only a few miles when I did run. I guess I just didn’t really love it. I viewed it as a weight loss tool, or something that I should do.

My friend Mandi and I after finishing 13.1 miles in 2008

However, after getting SWP I knew that I would have to run with him. I promised that I would do whatever it took to make sure that our dog was well exercised and wasn’t a bum. After picking him up in late January 2010 my real running career started. He and I both gradually increased our mileage and increased our pace. I started doing races in the fall of 2010 and even competed in one with SWP.

After my 5 mile Breast Cancer Awareness run

I started blogging to keep track of my miles that I run and to document my goal of reaching 1,000 miles in a year. I also wanted to keep track of upcoming races and my results from those races. I also will be adding anything and everything that comes to mind on any given day. Hope you enjoy my blog and my crazy life!