Good morning, B2B readers! I have an awesome guest post for you today which has some tips & tricks to help you run faster. What I love about this post is that my friend, Meaghan, is super real about the fact she hasn’t always been a runner and that it didn’t always come easy to her. I really believe that some people are just better at running than others, so when I hear tips from people who are just natural runners, my first thought it “yeah, easy for you to say! Running isn’t hard for you!”. However, when Meaghan started telling me about her recent running updates, I actually listened and thought “wow, she’s probably right- that’s a good idea”.

I remember getting texts from her a few years ago when she got back into running/working out more consistently, but it seems like over the past 6 months- a year she has really exploded with her running. Her mile times are much faster than they used to be and she’s running races all over the country- literally. I love that she has made running her ‘thing’ and when we were catching up the other day and she was telling me about all her races and times and improvements, I knew I had to have her share those same tips with all of you. If you’re looking to get better and faster at running, I hope you enjoy these tips and are able to take away some of them to try on your own. Take it away, Meaghan!

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I haven’t always been a runner. In fact, I was the kid in school that dreaded running the mile in gym class or running 2 miles for high school soccer try outs. After allowing myself to really get out of shape freshman year of college I decided to try running. At first it was mostly walking with some running thrown in, then I gradually increased the running and decreased the amount I needed to walk, until eventually I was able to run 3-5 miles without stopping. I wasn’t interested in speed for a long time, just getting out there and finishing the run that I set out to do. Then I signed up for my first road race a few years ago and that all changed. It was a 5 mile race and again, all I was interested in doing was finishing without stopping. I achieved that goal and got “the bug.”

I’d heard friends talk about the race bug, but did not think I’d ever be one of those people. Suddenly I found myself signing up for packages of races with goals to beat my last time. I even started planning trips for big races! I finished my first half marathon in Las Vegas last year and just got back from Lake Tahoe where I ran a 12.3 mile leg of a 72.2 mile relay race around the whole lake!

It took me years to get to this fitness level , but in the past year I’ve changed some of what I’ve been doing and seen huge results! I’m by no means an expert, but here are some of the things I’ve learned along the way:

1. Spice it up: Try a different route, new scenery and landmarks can really break up the monotony

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