Natalie Mitchell Keeps Running and Smiling, No Matter What

Natalie Mitchell has been running for most of her life, and running has played a part of some very memorable moments in her life as well.

Natalie Mitchell

Natalie loves the marathon, and enjoys learning something from each race that can help her run better next time.

And like me, she’s still working on mastering the distance.

Though one could argue that it’s virtually impossible to master 26.2, but that’s another discussion for another day.

Running Boston

Earlier this year, Natalie got to line up in Hopkinton to run the 2016 Boston Marathon.

As it is for many runners, Boston was a race that Natalie had been looking forward to for some time. When Natalie was in college, one of her coaches put the idea of running Boston in her head, and it’s pretty much been in the back of her mind since then.

Even though the weather conditions for the 2016 race weren’t ideal and she didn’t hit her time goals, it was still a great day for her and a fun trip to take with her family.

Natalie Mitchell and Her Boston Medal

Overcoming Injuries

Many runners have had to deal with a variety of running injuries in their careers, and Natalie is no different.

Her injury history started in college, and injuries kept her from competing at all her senior year. For someone that had been running for as long as Natalie had been, being unable to compete as a college athlete was difficult.

As difficult as those college injuries were for Natalie they were nothing compared to an injury she dealt with more recently. 

Natalie was having severe pain in her knee when running, and when she got it checked out she found out that surgery was basically the only option to deal with what turned out to be an osteochondral defect.

After getting a couple of opinions, she settled on a surgical option that sidelined her for about 4 months.

Thankfully, the surgery and physical therapy all went well and her knee has been good as gold as she’s gotten back into running and racing since the surgery.

Natalie Mitchell’s First Run After Knee Surgery

Now, however, she’s dealing with a case of plantar fasciitis which has impacted her fall racing plans.

Come what may, I think it’s safe to say that Natalie won’t be giving up on running any time soon!

When Running and Life Collide

How many times have you entered an online contest for something epic and won?

Never? Yeah, me neither.

For Natalie, she entered an online contest via Runner’s World to win a trip to Ethiopia to run with an Olympic gold medalist.

Are you kidding me?

Talk about a trip of a lifetime!

Running with elites, experiencing a different culture and way of life, what a great trip!

Natalie Mitchell and Gezahegne Abera (2000 Olympic Gold Medalist)

Another great moment where running and life collided for Natalie was supposed to happen at the finish line of the LA Marathon.

Natalie’s husband isn’t much of a distance runner, but he’s always been supportive of Natalie and her running (even before they were married).

Unbeknownst to Natalie, while they were still dating he knew she was planning on running LA and he wanted to propose to her at the finish line of the race.

On race day, Natalie was surprised to find out that he’d be running the race but she didn’t think anything of it other than it sounded kind of crazy.

He told her to run her own race, but asked that she wait for him at the finish line.

Natalie took off after a few miles, but they were unable to find each other at the finish line.

And yada, yada, yada, once they met up he proposed and the rest is history!

(She tells the story much better than I on the show, I promise! In my defense, I’m a dude so engagement stories aren’t really my thing!)

No matter what #running brings to her life, @natrunsfar keeps smiling as she goes! #runchat Click To Tweet

If you’d like to connect with Natalie, make sure to check out her blog or follow her on your social media platform of choice with the handle NatRunsFar!

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