I am almost certain, that I came out of the womb with a camera in my hand. Okay, it may not have been quite that early that the photography obsession started, but as evidenced by the below, it clearly wasn’t much later than that. When you come from a family of very artistic people, playing with film canisters and boxes instead of toys as a toddler isn’t all that weird.

One sock, an oversized hat and a film box. Welcome to my childhood! (1983)

I was roughly 7 or 8 years old when I got my first camera. Film of course, as digital cameras hadn’t quite made it out to the consumer world in 1988. I didn’t care though; I had a camera, and not just any boring old camera, a Kodak Mickey Mouse 110 film camera…that was of course pink! Much like my camera today, it went everywhere with me, though I couldn’t even tell you at this point what I took pictures of.

Unlike running and photography, both of which I picked up later in my youth, travelling has been a staple in my life almost since birth. Taking trips as a kid was as normal to us as Peanut Butter and Jelly (also a staple in my life). Whether it was a drive across the country, a trip up to the family farm in Massachusetts or summer vacations at the Jersey Shore, we were always going somewhere on an adventure.

My first big trip was a road trip from Pennsylvania to Colorado to visit my uncle. I was only six months old. I’m sure this seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course what they didn’t know was that I had hip dysplasia, and much to their dismay, I screamed most of the drive out and back. You’re welcome Mom and Dad!

Growing up, I don’t ever recall stating the desire to become a runner, but there were plenty of signs early on that I was good at it. The baton relay at my elementary school Olympic Day, the coach always putting me at half back in my very short-lived youth soccer career, oh and the 9,452 times I mouthed off to my parents as a kid, bolted out the front door at lightning speed and across the backyard, to sit on the drainage block and declare to the entire neighborhood, “I was not coming home!“. Yeah, I wasn’t the most well behaved child.

The relay race at Olympic Day (1988-1989-ish)

After a season or two of youth soccer, and my doing everything possible to avoid going near the ball, it was clear this was not my sport. In middle school, they had what was called the Presidential Physical Fitness Test. According to a quick Google search, this was started in the late 1950’s by President Eisenhower in an effort to encourage American to be more active. After 60+ years, it was done away with in 2012…much to every middle schooler’s excitement I’m sure!

Hello and welcome to my blog, Into the Runknown, a little play on Into the Unknown…which is a REALLY expensive domain name, in case anyone was wondering!

I have been contemplating starting a travel blog for a couple of years now, but never got around to it, thanks in part to a full-time job, two side businesses and oh right, that pesky half and full marathon training schedule. It’s a little hard to write blog pieces when you are comatose on your couch after a 20+ mile run.

Friends and family are constantly asking for (okay, sometimes getting unsolicited) advice or tips on various placed I have travelled to. Up until 2017though, most of my trips have been to Europe. While still exciting, Europe already has a plethora of blog posts about it, so no real motivation to add to that. A weeklong trip to Cuba in January of 2017 changed that mindset though. Upon doing my own research pre-trip I was able to find some tips but not much. Being a foreign destination (literally and figuratively) to Americans, there wasn’t much out there so we had to sort of pave our own way.

With a small window of opportunity between presidential administrations, there was a mass tourism boom to the small Caribbean country, and people wanted info! How did you get there, where did you stay, how was the food, etc. For the most part, I just forwarded my trip notes to friends in an email to pass along to their friends. Getting this information online though may benefit even more travelers who are lucky enough to make their way to the little slice of paradise, mostly frozen in time.

Now that was over a year and a half ago, so what happened? Life. Life and a a little thing called the Noro Virus. You see, when you bring back the stomach bug as a souvenir from your Cuba trip, you tend you use up all of your vacation/sick days for the year, in the first two weeks of the year. If you are going to have a travel blog, it helps to actually travel places to have something to blog about.

Insert a cross country road trip this summer (2018) with college friends, a handful of destination races and other small trips, and a blog was finally born!

Feel free to check out the about me page which will give you a better idea of what to expect on here and of course feel free to reach out via the contact page with any questions or just to say hello!

Thanks, and Happy Travels!

-Katrina