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When Erin Garling decided to start her running career, she went ahead and shot for the full marathon, forgoing any 5k, 10k, and any other type of race out there. According to her story, she downloaded Hal Higdon’s training program and set in motion a schedule to complete that year’s Chicago Marathon. This happened while she was at Wheaton College, and running that crazy distance was on her life list of things to do, so it made sense to her that she might as well just knock it out.

Erin was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, on Valentine’s Day no less! Plus she has an identical twin sister, Alison. While growing up she played field hockey for her middle school and high school teams. Once in college though, she transferred those skills on to the lacrosse field. From Wheaton College she moved to Nashville to pursue a Master’s degree to become a nurse practitioner, which she completed in 2005.

The running bug was still running around in her head after the Chi-town marathon, so she decided to help create a team for the Blue Ridge Relay Race in North Carolina. This group of runners started training together, and one day while trying to think of a team name, Drew Sloss proclaimed that the only way he was running was if they named the team…”EAST NASTY!” The whole trip was a magical experience, as I am told these relay races can be, filled with no sleep, hard runs, no showers, and all around delirium that is bound to bring people together. About a week after that event, her and Mark Miller (who was also on the team) began dating. And in case you did not already know, three weeks from now they are getting married!

Right now Erin’s life is pretty busy making wedding plans and keeping up with her work at Siloam Family Health Center. When she does have the time she enjoys getting out to see music, and one day hopes to see U2 live in concert. And even though she can only find the time to follow the now infamous Carrie Cohen training program (only Wed. and Sun. East Nasty runs), she does have the honor of being one of the first East Nasty members, which pretty much makes her kind of a big deal.

Rod Jones