My name is Jenny Thorsen, and I have been a runner on and off for over 20 years. No matter which sports I try, I always come back to running as my favorite. I was never an athletic kid growing up. In fact, I hated PE and avoided anything that would make me sweaty and out of breath as much as possible. But that all changed one day in college when on a whim, I decided I would like to run a marathon. I started going running with a college roommate, running intervals of just a few seconds at a time until I got myself up to a mile and finally 3 miles. One year later, I ran my first 5k and was hooked.
Over the years, I have run all distances between a backwards mile to 50 miles. My favorite distance is 50k, with my favorite race being the Barkley Fall Classic 50k in TN. Over the last 2 years, injuries and a bout of long COVID have impacted my ability to run as much as I used to, so I find myself struggling to get back to where I once was. I don’t let that stop me from planning my own adventures all around the country. I have also become a race photographer in the meantime, shooting races in IL, WI, NC, and TN with my proudest moment as a photographer being when one of my images was featured on the cover of the November issue of Ultrarunning Magazine. I love running and the running community and plan to be involved in it in one capacity or another.