My sophomore year of high school, one of my friends convinced me to join the cross country team. I truly don’t know how this happened because I was always a sprinter and had no business running long distances; maybe she told me that the coach was really cool or something. Anyway, I decided to join to see how it went. It turned out, the coach was cool. Like, really cool. And 20 years later, we are still friends.
Two weeks into my long distance running career, I decided I was going to quit. It was too hard. Too painful, my legs were cramping, I couldn't breath, we had to run in the rain….and I was just too weak. I remember the moment that I walked up to her to tell her I was quitting and she looked at me with a straight face and said “No, you’re not” and just walked away. I stood there, a bit stunned, and realized I wasn’t getting out of this easily. I proceeded to make up excuses about why I couldn’t run, one of which was period cramps. And even if it were true and she believed me, she still made me run. If it was raining, we ran. If it was sleeting, we ran. If we complained, we ran more. The season went on and I started to get the hang of it. She made it fun and I eventually ended up going from a 30 minute 5K to 24 minute 5K, which felt like leaps and bounds for me. The best memories that I have from high school are from that team, and it was all because of Barb’s passion. She didn’t just help us create fun memories, she taught us what we were capable of. She taught me not to quit, to trust myself, my body and my mind. I attribute a lot of my athletic success to Barb’s influence and I will always, always be grateful for that.
The thing about Barb is that despite her positive attitude and her visible passion for life, it has not been an easy ride for her. In 2016 she lost her daughter Molly to an undiagnosed pediatric brain tumor that is something I cannot even begin to imagine experiencing. On top of that, shortly after she was diagnosed with 3 brain tumors of her own and had to undergo brain surgery. But knowing Barb, here she is….not only living her life day by day as best as she can, but she’s competing in crossfit competitions at age 58. She started her own podcast . And even more amazing, last year at age 57 she gave birth to a baby boy, Jack. She is one of the oldest women to give birth in this country.
If you take anything from this post, please let it be that you can get through anything. ANYTHING. This woman is a testament to that and I will forever be grateful that I was able to have her as a mentor at such a young age. She not only made my experience on the cross country team fun, but she showed me what perseverance was. What confidence was. What passion was. And without that, I’m not sure where I would be. Thank you, Barb. 444 
Also, she was in an incredible commercial filmed in Moab that you must watch. It brings me to tears:
