Hi! I’m Lauren.

I was born and raised on Long Island, NY, but I fortunately lost the accent while at college in Western New York. My friends made fun of me pretty relentlessly, but I didn’t drop it on purpose!

After college I moved to the DC area to join my then-boyfriend. We lived in a Maryland suburb for the first year or so, and then spent three years living in the District.

I have been married for 15 years to my college sweetheart.  I may look young,  but we’re both now over 40. How’d that happen?

When we were ready to buy a house, we moved to Annapolis, MD. We bought before the market got ridiculous (yay!), and share our home with a sweet 18-year-old cat.

I work full time as a web developer, but I don’t spend all that much time tending to my own site.  I keep myself too busy!

I started running in 2004 to join my company in a corporate 8K. I was never an athlete … but it stuck.  At this point I’ve run 18 full marathons, over 30 half marathons, five 50Ks, 40 miles in a 12-hour race,  and dozens of shorter races. In 2008, I finished my first sprint triathlon, and that stuck too. It took a few years for me to branch out into Olympic distance races, but I moved up quickly from there. In 2014 I did my first half Ironman. I finished Ironman Maryland in 2015 and Ironman Vineman in 2016.

My other time-consuming hobby is singing. I belong to a community chorus, and we perform throughout the year. Technically there’s a summer break … but sometimes we throw together smaller gigs then, too.

I love to travel, and the husband and I try to get away a few times a year. Favorite trips are to Jamaica and the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

I’m addicted to HGTV, though my own kitchen project has been dragging since 2002.  (At this point, I give up and am waiting to remodel the whole thing.)  I fear surprise visitors because my house is usually a mess.  Unless it’s cold enough for tights, I only run in skirts.  I love shoes and used to have well over 100 pairs. Though running has kind of taken over, and I won’t suffer for fashion any more. I’ve downsized my dress/casual shoe collection quite a bit …

Except now, I have dozens of pairs of running shoes.