In 2019 a co-worker encouraged me to sign up for a 10k race with him. I had run a couple 10k and 5k races throughout my life, but didn’t train for them. This one was no different. The race ended up being cancelled. When I mentioned this to my then manager at work, she mentioned having run half marathons in the past and asked what my longest run had been to this point. I replied, eight miles – the distance that I had always capped my “long runs” at because it seemed far enough. She said if I can run 8 miles I could run 13.1 and suggested I sign up for a half marathon. I did and the rest is history. Maybe it’s because it contained marathon in the name or because it covered half the distance of the full, but I started to think, if I can run a half marathon maybe I can run a full marathon.

Shortly after that I suffered a minor meniscus tear. Then Covid hit and I didn’t do much other than work and sit on the couch. One night sitting on the couch I thought, I don’t want to die having never tried to run a marathon. Unfortunately it took more than just that thought to get me off the couch. Around this time my kids started to become interested in running and I agreed to run a small local 5k with my son who was eight at the time. Possibly inspired by my son’s surprisingly finish or maybe that I was almost able to keep up, I decided to sign up for my first marathon. Surprise! It didn’t go that well, but after the first marathon I was hooked on running and there’s no turning back now