10 Years of Blogging!

Holy moly! When I started this blog, I did not think I would still be writing on it 10 years later!

I initially started the blog because I wanted to share what I was up to in Alaska with my friends and family back in Minnesota. I was about to run my first marathon, so it seemed fitting to be able to document that endeavor as well.

Truth be told, I had secretly hoped blogging would turn into a full-time job for me. While that never happened, I got an even better gig out of it: a full-time stay-at-home mom with the ability to work part-time on this blog, my coaching business, as well as at Skinny Raven, with a little other side hustle thrown in there from Beautycounter and Like to Know It.

This was my very first blog post introducing myself and indicating why I started the blog. Crazy that I didn’t even include a photo at all. Ha!

Here is one of the first photos on my blog.

The last 10 years of blogging includes:

• 1357 blog posts (an average of 11 blog posts a month)
• 9739 comments left on various blog posts over the life of this blog. Crazy to think how many people have come to my blog over the years!

I’ve had to drastically cut back on how many blog posts I can accomplish each week now. When I was teaching, I had a lot of extra time during the summers, so I would often write two blog posts each day because that’s what people did! Who remembers the healthy living bloggers posting THREE times a day?!

Some of the most popular posts I’ve written:

Things I Wish I Had Known Before Moving to Alaska

Things I Wish I Had Known Before Moving to Alaska, Part II

Why I Won’t Use Bath & Body Works Lotion – A Beautycounter Hydrating Body Lotion Review

Return to Running After a C-Section

Hip Labral Tear – The Doctor’s Diagnosis

The funny part is that my Alaska posts have brought the most traffic to my blog over the years. I know a lot of people have also found my blog by searching for ‘Alaska + running’ or something of that nature. I’ve also had a lot of people reach out about my c-section and return to running after having a c-section as well as my hip labral tear–especially since I was able to heal it without surgery.

It’s funny to look back at the poor quality of photos I used to post, and then I started lugging my dSLR camera everywhere I went because that’s what everyone did. (I definitely don’t miss those days!) It is also funny to think back to the food trends–when Chobani yogurt was THE yogurt to be eating, you ate cold oatmeal for breakfast in the form of overnight oats, (Okay, I still do that.), chia seeds were all the rage, and Sandwich Thins were the only way to eat a sandwich. Then there was the period of time when Craig and I would ride our bikes to get frozen yogurt from Yogurtland at the airport because it was the only place in town that served frozen yogurt. Now Yogurtland is gone, and there are a slough of other frozen yogurt places in town.

The one constant has been my running. I initially started this blog just a few weeks before my first marathon–Grandma’s Marathon in June 2010. And to think I have now run a total of 10 marathons including the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon.

I love running just as much as I did back then. I have done 100 mile weeks while working full-time and even got faster after having a baby. I still have to accomplish my goal of a sub-3 hour marathon, so I hope you’ll stick around for that!

Thank you for those of who have been here reading this little ol’ blog of mine for several years! I thought my mom might be the only one who has read from the beginning but many of you have followed for years or even from the beginning!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart–it means so much to be able to connect with so many other people! And you guys are the reason I keep writing here. Plus Craig always convinces me not to give it up despite the number of times I’ve thought about quitting. Ha!