About Me

Welcome to Sadie Andrews, a running commentary on what inspires and motivates, particularly when it comes to athletic endeavors. (You might say I’m a sucker for a good comeback story.)

First, a little bit about me. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, I’m scattered all over the Internet  – you’ll glimpse parts of the picture on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter; on professional sites like LinkedIn; on sports sites; myriad real estate and corporate Web sites and blogs; in some (not so nice) letters to the editor; and, if you really look hard enough, in a couple of videos paying tribute to the Jersey Shore music scene.

Not a puzzle aficionado? Let me cull some of the pieces.

I am first and foremost a mother of two daughters, who I raised as a single mom for many years. I am now remarried, to my best friend, a lawyer who shares my passion for running and triathlons. (He is a 40-time finisher of the grueling Ironman triathlon; I guess that makes me an Ironmaiden.)

Although I’ve written a couple of newspaper articles about Ironman races, I have never competed in one, just the shorter-distance races. Someday I’d like to do a “half” – that is, half of the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and full marathon course. But first I must heal from the arthroscopic hip surgery I underwent this summer, to repair an injury that manifested itself during marathon training a year ago. I have been chronicling my travails in a blog.    

I was on my way to running that elusive 10^th marathon, in New York City, when the hip pain started, and it grew in lockstep with the intensity of my training. Still, I’m grateful to have gotten the chance to complete nine other races: in Boston; Philadelphia; Scranton, Pa.; Albany, N.Y.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Cape Cod, Mass.; and New York.

   

The best thing about running is being outdoors and meeting people along the way. I also love to hike, snorkel and kayak. I guess you could say I refuse to grow old quietly.

When I’m not playing hard, I’m working even harder. I am an editor and writer for a newspaper in New York City. I commute there from a suburb in northern New Jersey, where many celebrated journalists also happen to live. While I know some of these people socially, I hardly consider myself part of that club, though I am fairly well known in New York real estate circles. I was the writer of two real estate investment columns (one commercial, one residential), and am now the author of a weekly interview column, where I have interviewed many prominent people in real estate, including those involved in the rebuilding at the World Trade Center site. (Talk about a comeback story!)  

And when I’m not working and playing hard, I’m studying and reading with equal zest. I am a graduate student in an interactive communications program. Why go back to school now? If I want to remain a viable part of my industry, now undergoing a paradigm shift from print to digital, and of society in general, I need to develop skills in new media.

And who knows what Act II will bring.