About

 

My name is Danica and I fall in the category of “twenty something.” I fell in love with running when I joined my junior high cross-country team back in 1999, but I also ran track, played soccer and ran cross country in high school. I starting running again in October of 2008. I love the challenge of the half marathon, the marathon, and little 5ks — not a fan of the 10k. I ran my first marathon in May of 2009, and it wasn’t a good race. I finally had the most perfect race that I dreamed of at the Long Beach Marathon in October 2009, you can read about it here. It was, by far, one of the best days of my life, and made me believe in second chances.

A lot of things have shaped me to the person I am today. I went to a small private college and graduated with a Bachelors in Communications and a minor in Creative Writing. One of the biggest changes that I’ve been through was that I lost my mom my Junior year of college. When she passed away, I stopped running. I don’t know why, but I felt like I couldn’t do anything that made me happy when she was alive. When I coached a small high school cross-country program at one of the first meets I attended, I cried at the start of the race. It was shocking and it was then that I realized how much I loved running and how I missed it.

When I was began running consistently again, things began to fall back into place. I love exercising, working out, and all things related to running and fitness. One saying I remind myself of often is, “Live What You Love.” That is exactly how I want to live my life, doing things I love.

I live in Southern California, where all the running paths are flat and some are even along the ocean. I love watching all different sports and I’m a big Angels fan. I work as a Social Media Manager for a fitness company.

I am married to an amazing guy who is a firefighter for the City of Los Angeles. He doesn’t love running as much as me, actually who am I kidding, he hates running, but he loves working out and does run with me sometimes, as long as it’s not a long distance.

In high school, I was much faster than I am today, but throughout my life experiences, related to running or not, I have come to realize it’s not about the time or your place in the race, but the journey it takes you to get to that finish line.