Years ago, I wrote down a list of long-term goals – the things I wanted to accomplish in my lifetime. Some were specific: own a house, live in Europe. Others were broader, more like statements of intent than milestones. One of those was “be an influence in the running and fitness community.” I didn’t fully know what it meant when I wrote it. It took until this year to come into sharp focus as something I was finally ready to build. Now we’re here.
The Foundation
I’ve always been active. I spent as much time outside as possible as a kid, and started organized sports at eleven, joining my middle school track team mostly because my friends did. I didn’t expect to love it, but I did – both the short-distance running itself and the feeling of being part of a team. I kept running track through high school, then more occasionally through college and the early years of my career.
I ran my first marathon at twenty-four. It wasn’t until my thirties that I became what I’d call a competitive runner and spent a full decade chasing speed and performance, setting goals both predictable (a half marathon under 1:30) and unusual (forty marathons in forty countries in four years, finishing just before I turned forty). Somewhere in that stretch, I earned my run coaching certification, so I could help other women chasing the same kind of goals.
Along the way, I learned something that took me longer to accept than it probably should have: I was a better runner, and a more balanced person, when strength training and mobility work had a real place in my routine. I also learned what actually kept me consistent. Group fitness classes worked. A printed list of exercises to complete alone did not. And underneath all of it, I found something I hadn’t necessarily been looking for – a genuine community in running and fitness.
What I’ve Learned
I believe that anyone who laces up and puts one foot in front of the other is a runner. Full stop. No qualifying pace, no minimum mileage, no finish-line requirement.
I also believe, through my own experience and through the education and certifications I’ve pursued since, that running on its own – without learning how to properly support your body through it – makes injury and burnout far more likely. I’ve been through the full range of running injuries over more than twenty years in this sport. What finally changed things for me wasn’t finding the one training plan that fixed everything. It was accepting that running and fitness move through seasons. That rest is part of the process, not a departure from it. That strength and mindset training aren’t extras layered on top of a running plan – they’re critical to building real performance, and even more critical to building the kind of longevity that lets this stay part of your identity for decades, not just one strong season.
That’s the belief I wanted to carry into whatever came next. And it became clear, somewhere in this most recent season of my own running and fitness journey, that I wanted to share what I’d learned more deeply than I had been.
Launching embr
As 2026 began, and my fifteen-plus years in a corporate career started to wind down, I decided it was time to finally build a real framework around that statement I’d written years earlier.
embr – endurance coaching for women – is launching. It offers coaching in both running and mental performance through a digital platform and video-call sessions, with a training room of strength and mobility classes coming soon. Locally, in Luxembourg, we’re building a women’s running team from the ground up.
Once I started thinking seriously about how I wanted to show up for other women, the answer became simple: I wanted to offer the kind of support I’d wanted for myself and hadn’t been able to find in one place. embr fills a gap I’d noticed for a long time – run coaching and strength coaching that usually live in separate, disconnected worlds, with almost nothing that treats mental performance as a real, trainable part of the equation. And after five years living in Luxembourg, I still hadn’t found a women’s running club or team here. The local run pop-ups were friendly, but they weren’t offering the structure or focus I was looking for. So we’re building that too.
Every belief I hold about running and fitness is woven into embr: that real progress is built over time, and can be sustained intelligently without burnout. That everyone deserves to train in a way that actually fits their life. That community isn’t a nice addition to training — it’s one of the most powerful forces in it.
Right now, embr is just me. But it’s being built for the long run. I hope you’ll join us.
