Lauren’s Favorites:
Campus hangout: “I spend most of my time in Science B, but my favorite place would have to be the CCAT house.”
Place to eat on campus: The College Creek Marketplace.
Hobbies: “I enjoy running. I also make apps for Mac programs as a side thing that I took up from my Mom, who does this for a living.”
Clubs: “I’m involved in the Society of Women Engineers and Campus Gardens.”
Outfit: “I love my hiking pants, my blue fleece jacket and a scarf. I always go for a long sleeve shirt and scarf!”
With a big smile and colorful scarf to match her personality, Lauren Adabie, a sophomore at Humboldt State, is an engineering and chemistry student from Dallas, Texas, with a love for the environment and running.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to study my senior year in high school. My parents talked with me and we discussed my interests,” Adabie said. “I was really into the environment and did well with math and science and so after that, I knew coming into college that I wanted to do something with environmental resources engineering.”
Adabie is always on the run: when she’s not pursuing her double major in chemistry and environmental resources engineering, she’s participating in clubs and activities. Being on the run is nothing new for Adabie; she has been running half marathons since she was 13!
“I started half marathons when I was 13. I also ran track and cross country in high school and junior high,” she said.
It is no surprise Adabie became a runner — her family is full of them.
“Both my parents run long distance. My grandfather runs halves, too, so it’s a nice thing and an excuse for me to go visit him and run with him,” Adabie said.
When Adabie was 17, she set a goal for herself to run 18 half marathons by the time she was 18.
“I had done a couple, and my eighteenth birthday was coming up. I turned 17, and I started looking at half marathons. I thought I could do 18 half marathons by my eighteenth birthday,” she said.
To reach her goal, Adabie needed to run 10 more half marathons in a period of just 10 months.
Adabie did complete 18 half marathons, a total of 235.8 miles, by the time she turned 18.
“You get this high [when you finish a half marathon or relay], it’s so exciting. I ran hard, and I was tired at the end, but I feel so happy when I finish! I have my case of medals now. It’s a lot of fun. I just feel so excited! Sometimes I finish well in my age group, sometimes I don’t. When it’s 13.1 miles, I don’t really care anymore, I’m just happy I finish,” Adabie said.
Adabie admits that running isn’t always a breeze.
“My parents have a saying: ‘If you don’t throw up at the finish line, you didn’t run hard enough.’ I definitely threw up at the end; I think I’ve thrown up at almost every race I’ve done.”
For Adabie, running comes with many benefits — physically, mentally and emotionally.
“I feel so much happier when I’m running, and it’s relaxing to go out and get in a couple of miles. It just makes me happy. When I am able to run, if I don’t make all the miles I said I wanted to, it’s kind of disheartening. It’s kind of like, well now I need to do something else. It’s taught me to say ‘Hey, we’re going to get through this. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.’”
Moving up to HSU and being a full-time student tackling at least 19 units each semester, participating in clubs and activities, and still trying to maintain a social life makes it hard for Adabie to run half marathons and relays.
“I’m doing one a year. It’s kind of cold, and I am not able to run as much as I would like. I’m trying to find that balance with running, school life and social life. I ran the Redwood Marathon with my mom and her friend. I really want to do a marathon in San Francisco; I’m just trying for one a year and occasionally a long distance relay. Last year I did the Ragnar Napa Valley Relay, and that was a lot of fun,” Adabie said.
Adabie has big plans for the future, whether it’s running more marathons and relays or chasing after her dream job.
“I’d like to go off [after college]. I spent this last summer in the Dominican Republic and built a rainwater catchment system, which was a lot of fun! It was actually a program through Humboldt State University,” she said.
Adabie hopes to get a Ph.D in chemistry and use that to research and design industrial waste water treatment systems.