Sr. Marion Irvine with Dominican Sisters. Photo courtesy of Orbis. When you think of the Olympic Trials, you probably don’t picture a fifty-something nun lining up on the starting line, yet in the first U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, there was Sister Marion Irvine anxiously awaiting the gun in the crowd with Joan …
I’d waited with anticipation to experience my first running retreat, having written about it previously in the abstract. Like summer camp as a child, I was slightly nervous during the days leading up to the actual weekend of the Women’s Run, Yoga and Wine retreat. Could I keep up with the other runners? What about yoga, …
I took on the task of self-publishing my little memoir, wanting to share my story but realizing it wasn’t going to be a blockbuster, riveting, must-buy book for the general public. Memoirs are very personal, sometimes controversial, always revealing. Having the nerve to write about and share a difficult, yet joyous, time in my life …
August 5: On this day in 1916, my father was born. On this day in 2014, my mother died. They were married for sixty years, the two so much better together than alone. They found such happiness in this tiny corner of southeastern Washington with the Blue Mountains in the near distance. We were relieved …
Are you satisfied with your annual medical physical? Do you hear “that’s normal,” “everything looks fine,” from your doctor without any details after the standard blood tests and blood pressure results are presented? Does she focus on the specific symptom you’ve described without considering your overall health, nutrition, and life style? Do you even know …
One of my first vacations with my husband, several years before we were married, was to The Sea Ranch, an area that hugs ten miles along the northern Sonoma, California coast. Previously a sheep ranch, in the 1960s it was developed into an oasis of unique, architectural homes, a lodge with restaurant, and miles of …
I am now “Sage.” I am so excited to join this wonderful community of Salty Running bloggers (www.saltyrunning.com). I started running when I was twenty-five years old, eight years before the women’s marathon was an Olympic event. I was self-taught. I wore baggy cotton shorts, tee shirt and Keds™ shoes. I was often the only woman …
I don’t recall precisely why I chose running and swimming as the counterbalance to studying for the bar exam. In high school I had practiced the 880-yard distance with the girls’ track team, but I’d been too slow to compete. During college, I had persuaded my roommate to jog the hills surrounding campus on Sunday …
My family always went on road trips in the summers. We didn’t have money for hotels and my parents, perhaps remembering their days as camp counselors, seemed to revel in the back roads, camping with tarps as shelter, later with old army tents and finally the latest in family travel, the tent-trailer! Of course, traveling with …
“Around the Mountain Trail” at Bogus Basin Ski Area, 15 miles outside of Boise, Idaho, at 6100′ elevation. It was a perfect morning to write about the trail, still fresh from morning dew, perky buttercups, moss-covered trees, chirping birds. Instead I was awash in memories of my dear, beloved friend, Bess Harter, who passed away …