Hi, I’m Steph!

I started running when I was 8 years old, in 1978.  Running is one of the constants I can point to in my life, from being an 8 year old girl in the suburbs of New York City to now. I began running again in earnest right after the birth of my son in 2009, when my body was completely wrecked from a postpartum hemorrhage.

I reluctantly started practicing yoga in the mid 1990s, when I had trouble breathing on my daily runs. After seeing myriad doctors, with no success or diagnoses, I tried yoga and felt better. Even though I hated yoga for a long time, it helped me realize stress was the culprit of my winded-ness - and it helped.

Yoga taught me the necessity of cultivating a daily practice that is dynamic, sustainable and non-linear. What I found in the practice aspect of yoga I also find in my running. Running is what I call my “anchor practice.” Running provides a daily temperature check, a way to tune in versus tune out, a way to find refuge in myself versus looking outwardly for validation, a vehicle for keeping the magnets on my inner compass aligned.  I love the science of running, I believe anyone can become a runner, and I’m a huge fan of anything that lets us adults build a positive and dynamic toolkit that works for each of our unique bodies. 

You’ll see the word sustainable a lot throughout this website. That’s because our running HAS to be sustainable to reap the full and deep benefits of being in practice with something. However, too many times, in yoga and running, I see practices that lead to injury and burn out. I became a run coach, and started offering coaching and Yoga for Runners in earnest, when I craved a more dynamic - and sustainable - bridge between yoga and running. I had tons of questions, and as a middle-aged woman, I couldn’t find answers that were reflective or connective of my female and middle-aged experience. This was 2012. By 2016 when I had begun perimenopause, I realized that I needed a whole new language and vocabulary to shape and inform my running.  My transition to menopause was challenging and dark in every way possible. Thanks to patience, good doctors, and a newfound wealth of information out there (we still need more!) about menopause and athletes, I was able to evolve my running and find joy in it again.

I also know how hard it is to be a beginner as an adult. It’s sort of my main jam. I’m the first one in my family to go to college. I started my career in 1992 as an abortion rights organizer for NARAL. I became a yoga teacher because I was burned out in my nonprofit job. I found yoga because my running was suffering, thanks to the burnout. I tried a yoga class in a NYC Parks and Rec community gym in the mid 1990s and hated/loved it at the same time. A few years later, I got certified to teach yoga because as a runner, I saw the benefit of yoga, but craved connecting the dots between the two better. In 2003, I thought, what the heck, I’ll quit my job and try teaching yoga for a year. Twenty years later, and I’m still teaching.

I met my husband in grad school. We have an amazing teenage son who is a competitive rock climber. We live and run and climb in Brooklyn, NY. My running playlist is circa 1980-1989, the best decade for music. My favorite form of procrastination is playing Spelling Bee and shopping for curly haircare products.

Certificates
E-RYT 200hrs, Yoga Alliance
Lydiard Level 1 & 2 Run Coach
RRCA Level 1 Run Coach
Neuroleadership Institute Brain Based Coach

PRs (or see it all at my Athlinks profile)
Mile: 6:42 (Brooklyn Mile, 2017)
5k: 23:40 (Hot Cider Hustle, NYC November 2018)
5 mile: 39:08 (PPTC Turkey Trot, Brooklyn November 2018)
10K 48:41 (NYRR Queens 10k, 2014)
Half-Marathon: 1:45:40 (NYC Runs Big Apple Half Marathon, Central Park December 2018)
Marathon: 4:10:31(Jersey City Marathon, April 2023)