A Brief History

Hey everyone! I started running in April 2012 as a way to lose weight to fit into my mother's wedding dress. I definitely was not a natural born runner. I was always an athlete, playing soccer, softball, karate, and swim & dive throughout my adolescent years, but I always hated running. Ive had knee surgery and hammer toe surgery and have been told by a few podiatrists that running is just something I had to be ok with not doing. I had accepted this as truth for a while, and never really gave it a second thought.

Then I saw the wedding dress! I knew I had to lose weight in order to be able to wear it, and I knew that dieting and walking wasnt enough. I had been dieting since Matthew proposed to me in January, and walking a minimum of two miles a day every day. But I had only lost about 5 pounds, and if I fell off the wagon, the weight quickly came back. So Matthew said, well, why dont you try to run?

Simple question. And I had a simple answer: My doctor's all said I cant. Plus, my foot hurts too bad and is always swollen. But that triggered something in the back of my mind. So that day at the track, instead of just walking my two miles, I tried to run the last lap. I probably didnt look real smooth, barely staggering across the finish line with a beet red face, but I did it. And it sucked. And I quickly said to myself "See, you will never be a runner".

Over the next 6 weeks, I built up my time running slowly. I started running the straight-a ways of the track for 4 laps, then 6 laps, then all 8 laps. Then I started a whole lap at a time, then two laps, then...4 whole laps! Without stopping I ran 4 whole laps. A mile. For the first time in many many years! I was so proud of myself I had the stupidest grin on my face. That was May 11th.

Ive been going non-stop since then, working up to a 5K, then 10K, 8-miler, then half marathon. Its been a long hard road, but my fiance and I have ran it all together.