Melissa, Oh?

Much delayed, but I promised to share my experiences from my first triathlon, so here goes:
There’s something that seems very hard-core and intimidating about a triathlete. Which is why I laughed in my brother’s face when he first suggested I race a triathlon.
But the truth is, I very much wanted to become comfortable on a [...]

Apparently today is National Best Friends Day. It comes at a time in my life in which friendship and the very meaning of it has been something I’ve questioned.
So, what is a best friend? Being a little bit of a grammar stickler, I have trouble with those who claim to have multiple best friends. Don’t they [...]

I am by no means a cycling expert. In fact, I still consider myself very much a beginner. But in the short time I’ve spent chatting with people about cycling, I’ve noticed some misconceptions about the rules of the road.
I told Amy I wanted to write a blog post and she mentioned that her husband, [...]

So, Charlotte Racefest happened. And I was there. And I ran. And I did way better than I thought I would. In fact, I was only about a minute and some change slower than the half marathon I ran in October, and I was more prepared for that one, and that one was less hilly. [...]

Okay, so I promised you the other day I’d tell you about dropping my pants. So I’ll start this blog post by telling you about that part.
Scott, Jeff and I were hiking in the Great Basalm Mountains. During one break we were all standing on the trail and we heard a weird noise. Coming from [...]

I just ran 4 miles. It was harder than it should have been. All my runs lately are harder than they should be.
Running partners, I need you. You haven’t seen me lately. Don’t let me get away with it. Make me run with you. Make me run with you a lot.

Stealing this picture from Kevin’s blog because this is just what I need right now:

And lucky for me, I have an awesome brother and friends who invited me to go hiking/camping with them this weekend in Roan Mountain, Tenn. We will be leaving tomorrow evening and hiking 3 peaks (a total of 12 miles.) I [...]

Three reasons:
1. Amy:
2. Whitney:
 
 
3. Heather:

I have gotten some criticism about writing too much about exercising, and I was told one of my posts even resembled an REI catalog (which it so did.) So I have been curbing the workout talk, but when I read the above posts, I am so full of pride for my friends, such [...]

Working at a newspaper made me paranoid.
In the years I spent in the newsroom, I shared space with a police scanner. A police scanner that was always on (well, except for when someone would turn it down so they could watch the latest episode of the news or Lost or Elimidate …)
And in being around [...]

It’s 1980-something and I’m in the back of mom’s station wagon, sitting on blue vinyl with my neighbor Lauren sitting across from me, and we’re on the way to school. Jenny and Kevin are in the car as well. Lauren says to me, “Why don’t you ask your mom if the tooth fairy is real?”
It’s never [...]