After the 2024 Mount Rainier Half Marathon in Washington, I’ve run a race up and down the West Coast and completed nearly all of the western United States in my late sister’s honor. And as the fire builds deep inside the icy volcano in Washington state, so the fire for Taylor burns in my heart and my soles.

This year, in my early 40s, with the joints of a soccer player whose vocabulary didn’t include the word “rest,” I set my sights on a world record for fastest blindfolded half marathon by a female — without a tether. Why? Because I knew it would be hard.

I’m making a movie! Chronicling my world record attempt in my late sister’s memory, “Blind Momentum” will showcase the power of the human spirit and the extraordinary achievements that can be accomplished when we dare to dream big and refuse to give up.

In 2023, I’ll try to break the Guinness World Record for fastest blindfolded half marathon by a female. If you’re familiar with my story, you already know I’m doing this to honor my late sister, Taylor. But where and when will I make the attempt?

Since Global Running Day in 2013, I’ve lived a lifetime and lost the sister whose courage inspired me to run two half marathons blindfolded. Now, 10 years later, I’ll wear the blindfold again — this time in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for fastest blindfolded half marathon by a female.

I wish everyone had the chance to know Taylor when she was alive. But while I can’t bring her back, I can preserve her legacy. That’s why, on Rare Disease Day (always the last day of February), I wanted to share 28 facts about my sister.

For Laura, a flat, fast race felt like the perfect way to break back into racing after a five-month absence fueled by book deadlines, TED talks and sibling weddings, plus an untimely ankle sprain on Halloween night.

Some days are so unforgettable, so moving, that we live them over and over again, immersed in the moment, for the rest of our lives. I accomplished something I’d never dreamed I could do until this year: I delivered a TED talk.

I didn’t achieve my time goal in Missoula. But I learned a lot of lessons in six weeks of training and 110 minutes of running on race day, the most important of which was this: Failure is important.

My sister taught me that it’s important to push your own limits. And while running a sub-1:40 half marathon might not have a major impact on my own life or anyone else’s, the work I put in to get there will.

A lifelong introvert, Laura shares three strategies she used to overcome her fear of public speaking and advocate for people such as her sister.