Laura Smith Writer

Category: Nonfiction

  • Road to the TCS NYC Marathon: 4. Running with Luna

    It is this face that gets me out the door each and every day. It is this face that keeps me on pace (excepting squirrel fartleks and olfactory explorations).  For most of my running career I have been a solo runner, maintaining a run streak for the past 2641 days by waking before the sun…

  • Road to the TCS NYC Marathon: 3. Training in the Moment

    It is summer and I am a teacher. Which means that I do not have income coming in, but I do have hours of free time to focus on my training. Less than one month from now I will return to my hectic schedule: waking at 4am to attempt a morning run, a full day…

  • Road to the TCS NYC Marathon: 2. Taking it Easy and the Dreaded Ice bath

    I have the coach. I have the PT. I have three new pair of colorful Hoka One One Rincon lined up and set to go. I have a hotel room booked and will arrange a sick day. Now the training begins. The marathon is not just a race; it is a way of life for…

  • Road to the TCS NYC Marathon: 1. Asking for Help

    I have done it before and I will do it again. The New York City Marathon. It was not my first marathon, that was Hartford in 2009, but in February 2017 I decided on a whim to put my name into the lottery for an entry. Had I run longer than 13.1 miles since 2009?…

  • The Narrative of Rejection

    As a writer I should be comfortable with the idea of rejection. Yet somehow it always catches me, picks me up, and slams me on the floor. I lose my breath for a minute, or hour, before regaining consciousness. It is not the rejection per say, but the narrative that I create surrounding that rejection.…

  • Here I go again…

    I know, Whitesnake.  It is finally summer break. The hardest teaching year so far is behind me and I have saved up enough money to make it through the summer without working. I need this break to rest, to stay home, and to work on creating new curriculum for next year. I am setting a…

  • Abandoned Habits and Goals

     My goal at the beginning of 2021 was to spend time each day writing, either a short poem, a blog post, or an entry in one of the many journals strategically placed throughout my home. It is now April 11, and that goal has been thrown to the wayside amidst the stress of teaching in…

  • Creating New Habits

    How long has it been since I have written a post? The last few years have been filled with writing, with running, with teaching, and with learning. I completed a thesis about female writers and the power of phallocentric language. I began working on a master’s degree in creative writing and have been writing chapters…