We think it’s about time you meet this gal, if you haven’t already.
She’s rad, hardcore, weird, and has an appetite of, well you guessed it, a bear.
She’s been around since the days of pledging …
Hi! I’m Miranda, but you can call me HungryBear.
My reasons for coming to NP are more emotional and mental than physical. Don’t get me wrong — I love the workouts and I’ve met amazing people who inspire the fuck out of me and have caused me to level up from marathons to 50ks. And I’m somehow now registered for the Squamish 50/50 in 2018 (I’m looking at you, Kat Feeney).
But really, I come for the hugs. I just want to hug you all and squish your little faces. Before NP, I was single (well okay, that hasn’t changed) and without a lot of close friends in Vancouver. I was really lacking in human contact. In connection. In people to talk to. Then one day, G1 (aka Graham Snowden) sent me a message that said something like “Hey! Come do this fun thing tomorrow!”
I already had fitness plans for the next morning, but I replied — I’m definitely in for next week! Without knowing it was a thing, I gave my first #verbal.
Fast forward to the next Wednesday. I just showed up.
Oh my goodness. Hugs. And high fives. And laughing. A few familiar faces (since G1 and I knew some of the same people already) and some people who weren’t familiar at all, but acted like we were old friends (yes, Chad Weir, I mean you.) I don’t remember exactly what we did at my first workout but I do remember the way I felt when I left. I was floating on a cloud and couldn’t stop smiling.
It felt like recess. It was okay to be silly. It was real human contact with total strangers. I giggled like a child for the rest of the day and invited everyone to come with me. I mean everyone.
I brought co-workers and friends. I brought my mom. I brought my aunt and uncle (and you can even see them in the “Showing up” Dooster movie!) I brought a random guy who I tried to rent an apartment from (even though he chose to rent it to someone else).
I had finally found my tribe.
I should back up a little and tell you about the years leading up to this workout. I don’t want to go super deep into my own origin story, but I want to give you an overview of my life B.N.P. (Before November Project).
I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at 18 months old and spent most of my childhood and early 20’s being in pain. I had huge swollen joints (mainly my knees and elbows, but also my jaw and ankle) and I struggled with walking, stairs, brushing my own hair, putting in my own contacts, chewing food and being happy. I was often sick from medicine side effects, tired for seemingly no reason, and depressed more than I would like to remember. I didn’t ever feel that I truly fit in, as I walked with a very pronounced limp and was often stared at as I struggled my way through life. New medicines have made a world of difference for me physically, since 2005, but the feeling of being different, of not fitting in, isn’t something that medicine can help with.
I never would have thought I would become a runner, an ultramarathoner, a fitness enthusiast of any kind. And yet.. here I am. After my new medicine kicked in, I trained for my first marathon and finished it (very slowly) in January of 2006. I was hooked.
Over the next few years, I ran a few more marathons, some halfs and eventually fitness became the most important (non-human) thing in my life.
In 2011, I moved to Vancouver with my then-boyfriend. Unfortunately, he was not a happy human and he brought me down with him. I was miserable and lonely in a new city. I joined Team in Training and met a lovely group of people who I almost fit in with. I did several triathlons with the team over a couple years, but when injury forced me to take a year off of endurance athletics, those people faded from my life. I was again alone in the city.
And then NP came along.
Since then… 2.5 years of Wednesday mornings. Several workouts on crutches. A few workouts in an air boot. Many NP road trips to epic races. NP Ladies Nights. Thriller Dance flash mob. NP Christmas party karaoke. All of the feels at the finish line of O2X. So many Shallow Bowls. I can’t count the number of hugs, high fives and “I’m glad you’re here’s”.
Nothing can compare to having my tribe run me in for the last couple km of my first 50k in Squamish. I was having a glorious time in the forest, but I was getting precariously close to the cut off time, so they came out to find me. Crossing the finish line with my NP Family right there was just… everything.
Squamish 50 was so much fun, we decided to do it again. This year, I registered for the 50 miler. I was optimistic and training hard over the first few months of the year. In March, I made the horrendous mistake of mixing wine with high heels, and broke my foot in a tragic dancing accident.
Unlike the previous year (where I’d badly sprained my foot and spent a couple months on crutches, but remained positive and joyful and ecstatic about life) this injury made me miserable. Showing up for injury deck was more difficult due to the weather, and the pain of walking in an air boot. So I mostly stopped going to NP. And I was grumpy and lonely and not myself — and severely lacking in hugs and high fives.
Fortunately, unlike previous fitness-based-friendships that melted away when I got injured, NP was still there for me. I showed up to #injurydeck when I could and got my fix of hugs and love. Camping trips still happened, as well as wine nights, swimming, and spin classes.
I healed just in time to drop down to the Squamish 23k and was thankful to be running at our 2nd annual Squamish NP weekend – but I still wasn’t quite myself. I knew it wasn’t enough for me. I wanted and needed to do an ultra this year.
I knew there would be a huge NP presence at TNF Endurance Challenge California so I tried to convince my NP Squamish crew to come with me. The timing didn’t work for anyone. I wanted to do the race, but with friends at the finish line. Then, fellow Vancouver tribe member Nikki Layson posted that a group from NP Seattle was looking to share an Airbnb for the race. So I took the leap and signed up.
A couple months of training later, I woke up in San Francisco on race morning – more excited than I’ve ever been about a race. “This is my gift,” was all I kept thinking as I danced around the start line heaters. My reward for such a shitty year. The end of the broken foot era.
“My reward” was 9+ hours of running up and down giant hills by myself in California. This race hurt a lot but I was misty-eyed with joy (for most of it).
At the finish line of my fourth 50k, in a city where I knew no-one, my adopted NP Seattle Family (and Nikki) screamed for me and hugged me like I was theirs.
How amazing is it, that in 44+ cities around the world, we can just show up and have instant community?
For me, NP isn’t just a fitness “bootcamp” that I show up to. It’s my family. It’s soaked into every aspect of my life and reshaped who I am. Yes, I still awkwardly feel like I don’t fit in sometimes, but now, instead of sitting in that feeling, I just go hug a stranger.
Our Vancouver tribe has morphed and changed over the last couple years. Loved humans have moved on and new friends have come in. Leadership has changed. But somehow, we end up with the same awesome vibe every Wednesday.
I’m not ever going to be the fastest or the fittest. My body is a little war torn after a lifetime of inflammation and medicine, and it doesn’t always work the way I would like. But it doesn’t matter because I now belong.
#thetribeisstrong
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