about

Thanks for stopping! I'm Hannah. I like to write. I like to run. I use Feet Move Forward to write about running (and other stuff, too).

I started this blog in 2010, when I was just starting to become a regular running.  As months and miles passed, my passion for this sport grew, and I was excited to be making strides in my fitness. Then in late 2011 and early 2012, I faced two completely-unrelated-to-running injuries (a broken rib here and a pulmonary embolism here) and never made it back to peak fitness

And then I met my non-running husband and got married.

And then I got bit by Carl.

And then I got pregnant. Our daughter Ulla was born in April 2015. It took me almost a year after her birth to begin to feel physically "normal" and I slowly returned to running, with no real agenda. The highlights of my post-baby comeback were running a sub-2hr half marathon on minimal training and setting a 10k PR in January 2017 before hopping back on the baby-making train for Baby #2. I gave birth to our daughter Olive in January 2018, and my only major accomplishment post-baby was running sub-22 in the 5k in 2019 (chronicled on Instagram). And finally, our son Jack was born in September 2021.

When I was at my peak fitness level, my goal was to run the men's BQ time, with an eye on that Sub-3. Three kids and over a decade later, I'd ultimately like to find my limit as a runner.

PERSONAL BESTS 
Mile: 2013 Medtronic TC 1 Mile, 6:12 (my first and only)
5K: 2011 Run the Valley 5k, 20:25
10K: 2017 Pensacola Beach Run 10k, 44:37 (post-baby!)
Half marathon: 2011 New Prague Half Marathon, 1:36:24
Marathon: 2010 Des Moines Marathon, 3:27:25





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stalk me when i run (and other marathon things)

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my first race & other weekend activities

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Saturday was the first time I've pinned on a race number since Ragnar Relay last August. I ran the the Trail Mix race at Hyland and I found three other poor souls to do the 50K relay with me. Relay is misleading because it's not a relay at all, rather a team event where everyone runs the 7.75 mile loop together and then all our times are added up. Because I haven't been running much lately, I wanted to run this just for fun and stayed with my brother the whole time. We both crossed the finish line at 1:13:29, roughly a 9:27 pace. Since we had speedy dudes on our team, we ended up finishing 22nd overall (out of 95 teams) and 5th in our division of uneven mixed. Not too shabby.  Team "Three Men and a Lady" It was actually a great day for the race weather-wise but by the time I got home, my sweat had cooled me down significantly and I was freezing! I spent a good twenty minutes just trying to warm up in the shower before jetting off to see my two lit
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how to train for the bear run on a treadmilll

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One of the races that made its way onto my 2013 race calendar is The Bear Run in Linville, NC. The Bear is a five mile run up Grandfather Mountain (here's my 2011 race recap ). The race is near one of my favorite cities in America, and it would be a good excuse to sneak in a little vacation. We'll call this my destination race of 2013. Here's the elevation profile of the 5 mile course: So how does one go about training to run up a mountain? Hills. Lots and lots of hills. Even if you're not training to run The Bear, hills are a totally beneficial part of training. (Stud runners Carrie Tollefson and Matt Gabrielson break down the benefits of hill training in this video .) But what if you live in Minnesota where every hill looks more like a glacier? Two words: treadmill incline. When I was first training to run it, someone much better at math than me figured out a treadmill run that would simulate the elevation profile of the course. I honestly
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