When my then-boyfriend, now-husband Jay suggested that I start running with him, I thought he was crazy. I had never run before. I had never even played a sport! I was so un-athletic that I was that kid who got picked last to be on the kickball team. Jay, however, was a true athlete. He played soccer in college and had run countless marathons. He was a long-distance runner at the time! Suffice it to say that he had his heart set on completing a 50 mile run when I met him.

I figured I should probably learn to run if I wanted to spend more time with him. I remember he was so patient with me. He slowed down his pace so much just to support me in my new endeavor. After a couple of months, I managed to get up to a 5k, and I decided to register for my first race.

I was pretty nervous and I had no idea if I could even run the whole time, but Jay seemed to think I could do it. I was nervous, but Jay said he would run the race with me and pace me. I had no reason to back out.

We opted for the Allaire 5K in October. This was back in 2009 so excuse the awful quality of these photos! Here we are just before the race – we were such babies!!

Here we are during the race! Jay loves to point out the little boy running behind us in the image on the left and the runner pushing the stroller with two kids behind us in the image on the right. What can I say, I was about to be outpaced by the best.

In the end, I finished in 30 min 54 seconds at a pace of 9:57 per mile. The goal was to come in at under 10 minute miles so I did it! And I officially fell in love with running.