Blogger Highlight: Meet The Foodie Runner

“Hi there! I’m Lauren and my blog is called The Foodie Runner. As you can probably tell from the name of my blog, I love running and I love food. What my blog name doesn’t reveal is that I’m also a wife, a mom, and a running coach. My life is crazy busy, that’s for sure, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

I was obsessed with running from an early age – mostly because my hometown is the start of the Boston Marathon, and in elementary school we got to meet the Kenyan runners each year. As soon as I was old enough, I joined my school’s cross country and track teams and competed throughout middle school and high school. My running took me clear across the country to Pepperdine University for college. There I competed at the Division I level for four years and left with five school records in the 5000m, 3000m steeplechase, 3000m, 1500m, and the Distance Medley Relay.

It was also during my time on the team at Pepperdine that I met my husband, Henri. We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary and are approaching nine years together! We have a daughter, Lavinia, who just turned one a few weeks ago. We are pretty obsessed with our little goofball.

After graduating from college, I followed a bit of a winding career path before landing where I am now – a full-time collegiate cross country and track coach. Being a running coach is challenging, especially as a woman and a mom. It requires early mornings, long weekend days away at meets, and frequent travel. While it brings a lot of challenges, I absolutely love my job! Watching my athletes work so hard and achieve race wins and personal bests is worth every difficult aspect.

I started my current job right around the time Lavinia was born, so I’ve spent the past year learning to balance work, being a mom, and running. While I started running casually a few weeks after delivery, it took me a long time to find the motivation to start training seriously again. Nine months postpartum was when I really felt the urge to get back to my former level of training and racing, so I hired a coach and started getting after it.

I’ve had to learn to be flexible and fit my training in when I can. Luckily, we have quite a bit of exercise equipment and access to a ProForm Pro 2000 treadmill, so I’m able to sneak in workouts during my baby’s nap time when necessary. Just a few weeks ago, my recent training paid off in a new 10K PR!

 I am so excited to be blogging for ProForm and look forward to sharing my passion for running, fitness, and healthy living with you all in the upcoming months. I am on a continual journey to fit training into my daily life, and I hope by taking you along for the ride, I can show you that being busy doesn’t have to be a hindrance to your fitness goals.”