About

My name is Jennifer Crego and You Mother Runner is my outlet for writing about something I love – running! I was not always a fan. Rewind to ten years ago and I was an smoker, a big drinker, and it simply didn’t occur to me to exercise for fitness, and even further from my mind was exercising for enjoyment. In 2006, I was inspired by my older sister. She had already been into running for a while and she probably doesn’t know this (until now!), but I bragged about her a lot to my friends, albeit while I was joining them in the smoking area at work.

I was overweight, out of shape, and still smoking, but I decided to follow her lead and started an online Couch to 5k Program. For those of you who aren’t familiar with c25k, it’s a program that helps people progress from walking with short bouts of jogging mixed in, to jogging a full 5k, which is 3.1 miles. I still remember the first time the program called for 90 second jogs with 90 second walks. I kept it up for almost the entire 25 minutes, but in the end, I couldn’t finish joggging the last 90 seconds. It felt like my lungs were going to explode out of my back. I know, not a pretty picture. So what’s a girl to do? I walked home and lit up a cigarette to enjoy while I did a few poorly attempted stretches. I kept it up though and in September of that year, I ran my first 5k with my two sisters. I felt such a sense of accomplishment, but once the rainy Pacific Northwest weather set in, I was done for the year.

In 2007, I had some health issues that prevented me from running for several months. Once I was better and could take up running again…well, I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t give running much thought until early 2008 when a friend of mine told me about a running group she had joined. So in May, 2008, I joined her running group too. While running with my group last year, I trained for a hilly 4-miler, a 10k and then a half marathon. 2008 was a year of change for me. I quit smoking in January and I eventually began to see myself as a runner, not just someone who tries to run.

This year, I became a pace leader for my running group. I’m still overweight and I’m still slow, but I think that’s part of what makes me a good pace leader for new people. No intimidation here! Every event since I actually committed myself to running has been an opportunity to improve my time and be a better runner. I will never be a front of the pack kind of a gal, but I enjoy running without the competition.

With work, family, household, school and everything else called life, I have come to rely on running to give me some sense of internal balance, but it has not been without strife. I struggle, just like other moms, with the responsibilities that I must put aside in order to do this for myself. My running group has been a constant source of encouragement. I have forged new friendships and strengthened old ones. Without my group and the stop watch of a very enthusiastic coach, I would not be quite as motivated to run in the rain, and when I’m tired, and when I just don’t feel like it.

I started You Mother Runner to write about the ups and downs and the pains and accomplishments of my running journey, along with helpful information for other mom runners. I hope others enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it.

To contact me, email me at jencrego@gmail.com.

~Jen