As I look forward to 2024, I look back at the events in my life in 2023.
2023 started off to a great start when my husband Jon was declared in remission after tackling recurrent stage IV colorectal cancer. March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. Please schedule your colonoscopy in 2024.
In March, I also became a chicken lady. I got two egg-laying hens. Faith and Hope brought me so much joy. I get up every morning at sunrise to let them out of the coop. My life now revolves around my hens. They are amazing, silly, fun, happy creatures. I have learned so much from them and from the world of hens.
Faith and Hope
In May, my debut memoir— Come What May, I Want to Run: A Memoir of the Saving Grace of Ultrarunning in Overwhelming Times—was published by Resource Publications, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers.
In May, I also ran my 36th ultramarathon—the Dawn to Dusk to Dawn 24-hr track ultra. I managed to place ninth female.
In June and July I trained for two more ultramarathons. I was also interviewed about my ultrarunning life and my book on a few podcast and radio interviews—Martha Runs the World, Runner's Resource, Rise Resolute, and Blessed2Play. I was also featured in Run Tri Bike Magazine.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing ultrarunning phenoms Harvey Lewis and Kaylee Frederick.
In August, to our shock, our Cruise American RV rental was broken into in the parking lot designated for people visiting Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, MO. Everything but the clothes on our back was stolen, nothing was recovered, and no arrests were made.
And sadly in August, we lost Hope. She suffered from egg-yolk peritonitis and had to be euthanized. We were heartbroken, and so was Faith. But a few weeks later, Gracie came into our lives. She and Faith are very good to each other.
Faith and Gracie
In August, I had a 12-hr PR at the Loopy Looper 12-hr ultramarathon. In October, I placed first female at the Hainesport 48-hr ultramarathon.
In September, I participated in my first art exhibition. In 2023, I also painted six more paintings. Since 2021, I have painted fifty-two paintings.
From August to November, I read four food memoirs—Ruth Reichl's Tender to the Bone and My Kitchen Year, Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life, and Jessica Fechtor's Stir. These food memoirs, sprinkled with recipes, have given me some good ideas and have helped me to organize the beginning stages of my next book—a food memoir/cookbook about how I healed my eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) when I eliminated preservatives, additives, food coloring, steroids, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, and insecticides from all my foods. This new endeavor has also been inspired by readers from over the world who have reached out to me to share their EoE story, who tell me that I give them hope, and who have encouraged me to write a cookbook.
To celebrate my 65th birthday on January 2, I ran sixty-five miles over the span of seven days beginning on Christmas Day, and finished on New Year's Eve. Here's to the next chapter in my blessed life. Here's to 2024, more adventures, and to new possibilities.
©2024
I am the author of Come What May, I Want to Run: A Memoir of the Saving Grace of Ultrarunning in Overwhelming Times. You can read excerpts, praise, reviews, and order the book from the publisher, Amazon, Bookshop, and Barnes & Noble here.