who am i?

Greetings from Portland Oregon!

My name is Adrienne and I'm 28 years old and am from Cleveland Ohio. From my day's as a little adrienne, I dreamed of being a doctor.

The intensity, the dedication. . . I thought for sure that's what I was meant to do with my life. I went to college at Marquette University (good old milwaukee, wisconsin) and upon graduation, started work in medical research and eventually pathology here in Portland Oregon. When I left the Midwest and started my life here in Oregon, everything changed. The smell of the air here was intoxicating. My mom told me I would hate the nine months of rain I would endure each year, but after the first winter I couldn't understand how I had lasted my entire life in snow and bitter cold. Aside from nature, I quickly discovered the lifestyle here was drastically different from what I had been used too. Raised on midwest cooking and Wisconsin style drinking, the college years left me with an amazing education but also an extra 30+ pounds.

I was overweight, unhealthy and living in a community that worshiped veggie burgers and vegan cooking (boy was I a fish out of water). I needed to start somewhere so I took advantage of the high school track I lived across the street from and started on my journey. My first steps were painful, and to be honest- embarrassing. I had been a high school varsity athlete that worked hard to stay fit.... did the pursuit of good grades and my lack of willpower set me this far back? Super slow running turned into not so slow running. I decided to put off buying a car for almost 2 years after moving to Portland so that I could take advantage of my newly found love of movement and run or walk everywhere.

My coworkers at the hospital decided to do a Hood To Coast Relay team and ask me to join up. I was nervous, my last experience with running was grade school track. Nerves however were not an excuse to NOT to do it. And so it came and went. It was an experience unlike any other I had before. It reminded me of my childhood and the comradery of the team sports I knew and loved. But it did something much more. No matter how fast I moved during the race, no matter what my time. . . it was faster then if I would have done nothing and kept myself bigger and unhappy. To me, that race represented days of training; of feeling uncomfortable and sore and broken. It was my gift to myself I had been waiting years to give.



After completing my second HTC Relay, I wrote a letter to the event saying how amazing the experience was and asked how I could help. Nearly three have passed and I am now the Marketing Director for Hood & Portland To Coast Relays and their new event venture, Better Series. Those reasons I mentioned before about wanting to be a doctor (the intensity, the dedication) . . . I feel all that and more doing this job. I absolutely love putting on running and walking events and providing others with the same life-changing experience I had.



As for my 40+ pounds?They are long gone. I run, do triathlons, cycling, snowboard, hike and camp. I'm not the best runner, not by a long shot...I still however try my best and improve every year. This blog is about my path, my past and my future. It's about where I am and where I want to go, I hope you enjoy the ride.