Never Give Up

I'm Amy- scientist (Physics PhD) and plant-fueled runner/marathoner. Read about my training here, my past races here, and my running PRs/goals here!

[therunningphysicist]

Congratulations!!! You seem really healthy and glowing! Are you preparing for postpartum and all the gloriously important things that come with it? I wish you a wonderful motherhood! 💌

Thank you, kind anon! Baby boy was born just before Halloween 🎃 Motherhood has been a big adjustment, but has been so beautiful and fulfilling (and exhausting and hard!) thus far. Baby B is growing and thriving, and my husband and I are more and more in love with him each day. Life is so wonderfully sweet right now 💙

[therunningphysicist]

Small life update: running a lot less lately - I've been a bit busy with a side project 🤰🥰

[therunningphysicist]

The good, the bad, and the ugly of my first ultramarathon ✨

When I crossed the finish line, I told my husband to never let me sign up for another one of these - but by the time we drove home I was already on Ultra Signup scoping out my next 50k 😆

[therunningphysicist]

When babies? Plant, fur or human? And what does your husband do for fun?

Hi there anon, thanks for the questions!

No babies yet, but my husband and I are hoping to expand our family in the near future. I'm currently training for the Chicago Marathon, and won't be eligible for paid parental leave at my current job until June of next year, so those are some big milestones that are guiding our planning.

In the meantime, I do have a small collection of plant babies that I've been nurturing for the last 2 year: two majesty palms, four money trees, and two zz plants.

We also had a Carolina Wren make a nest in our mailbox this year, and raise two babies in there! My husband set up a 24/7 live stream of them for me to watch, so they were my feather babies for several weeks. I cried when the babies finally left the nest 🥲

My husband's main hobby is retro video game modding and collecting. He has a whole section of the basement set up as a workshop where he has a variety of soldering equipment, including a fancy microscope for microsoldering. For the last few weeks, we turned the basement bathroom into essentially a chemistry lab where we bleached old yellowed plastic (using hydrogen peroxide and UV light), cleaned up rusted metal shielding using acetic acid, and tried our hand at electroplating. We have a lot of fun together haha!

[therunningphysicist]

what is going on with you? you are here, but don't post anything. is everything okay?

hello friend! yes I mostly just lurk these days. I've taken a step back from social media over the last year or two, as far as how much I post. but there are people here on tumblr that I have followed for a while that I still like to keep up with and see how they are doing! one of these days I will probably start posting on here more again, but in the meantime here's some updates:

I got married in September! it was in Chicago, and was absolutely perfect with all my favorite people there with us

I'm still living in the DC area - about to complete my postdoc at NIH and am in the process of being promoted to Research Fellow in the same lab

my research has been going really well the last year or two - I have two projects I'm spearheading that I'm SUPER excited about, and in the last year(ish) I published three papers, gave talks at two research conferences, and wrote a chapter for a textbook

earlier this year, my husband and I were looking at buying a house and actually had a place under contract. but the housing market has gone to shit (especially in the DC area) so we are just going to rent for the foreseeable future and keep saving money

I will be running the 2024 Chicago Marathon! so you will probably see some running posts in the future as I start training for that

thanks for reaching out and asking how I'm doing! things are going well, just very busy the last year with work, family, and planning a wedding - but I promise I'll be around more in 2024!

[therunningphysicist]

We're getting married 💍❤️

[therunningphysicist]

Not "officially" engaged yet, but yesterday my boyfriend and I went ring shopping and purchased this gorgeous ring in rose gold with a 1.35 carat diamond! He wants to do an official proposal, sometime in the next month or two, and we have started contacting venues/planning for a fall wedding date! I am so excited, so y'all get to see it first since no one here knows me IRL haha

[therunningphysicist]

Last big weekend of training is a wrap! It's officially taper time 🙌

PS - I think I'm gonna lose my first toenail 😬

[therunningphysicist]

Some big mileage (and gorgeous views) this weekend - 18 mile long run yesterday and a 9 mile recovery shuffle today. Only 5 weeks out from my 50K now! I'm nervous but also really excited.

[therunningphysicist]

Long run views 😍⛰

[therunningphysicist]

Just out here training, racing, and living my best life in MD! 

[therunningphysicist]

Had another race over the weekend! This one was a trail 10K. I ran this same race three years ago right after moving to MD; I was 20 seconds/mile slower this time around than I was three years ago, BUT I did so much better on the hills - I didn't walk up a single one (lol) and I even passed quite a few people on the uphills! Not as fast as I used to be but I am definitely so much healthier and stronger 💪🏽

[therunningphysicist]

Had an awesome time yesterday at the local Memorial day race! And as a special treat, I won a cake for correctly "counting" (ie guesstimating) the number of flags they had placed along the race course. It was even more delicious than it looks 🤤🎂

[therunningphysicist]

This weekend I ran my first race back after an almost three years hiatus between a major health event I suffered and then the pandemic. It feels good to be back!

[therunningphysicist]

Saw your ‘gram post re: crocheting. Wondered if I missed something. :)

Hi there anon!

I think you are referring to this picture I posted on my instagram recently:

I wish I could claim this adorable lil guy as mine, but he is actually my newest nephew! I have a tradition of crocheting a baby blanket for each of my nieces/nephews :)

[therunningphysicist]

Amazing the difference a week can make! Trees full of beautiful fall leaves last week, and now today they are all bare and it snowed a bit 🥶

[therunningphysicist]

Fall was on full display this weekend at the forest preserve! Beautiful day and the weather was really nice too. My calf has been bothering me a bit lately so I’ve cut back on running for the time being to let it heal up.