Your First Run in the History of All Runs...

So many running firsts with these two! [Amanda, Jackie, Me]

I was thinking about how I got started on my running journey. I was a freshman in high school and my friend, Amanda S., was an AMAZING cross country runner at my high school. Our sisters played softball together for a few years so our families became very close. We were on a camping vacation of sorts during the summer and Amanda kept begging me to run with her. She wanted to see if I liked it so that I would join the cross country team with her. At the time, I thought to myself "The only thing I have going for me right now is playing the clarinet in band." I thought if I was a decent runner, I would be an athlete and get a boyfriend! (in case you were wondering, this thought process was WAY OFF).

 

So, on one of our camping trips, I decided to go for a little jog with my friend. I don't remember hating it, but I wasn't totally in love with it. I mean, have any of you been in love with running after the first one?! Sometime the following week, I told my friend I was going to our local track to run some laps. Unbeknownst to me, Amanda S. told her coach when I would be there. I arrived to the track, scared as all get out, and decided to kick my legs around and stretch because I was stalling the inevitable. As I was doing all of this mess, I saw a strange man come into the track area and sit on the bleachers. It was weird. I kept stretching until I ran out of muscles to stretch. This man would not leave. At that point, I was like WTH...JUST RUN!

 

I ran 6 laps around the track when I decided to stop. I have no idea how fast I ran...I just ran. When I sat down afterwards, the creepy man came up to me (side note: he's not really a creepy man...he was one of my biggest inspirations at that time in my life). It was the cross country coach. He told me that Amanda talked about me and he wondered if I was interested in joining the cross country team. It was this day that my running adventure officially began! I went from running 6 laps around the local track to running 2 mile cross country races and eventually 5ks then running my first full marathon 8 years later (can someone tell me why my crazy a$$ ran a full before a half?).

 

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My longest run since The Veteran's Marathon! Thankful for these ladies and thankful for legs that run...even if they were about to fall off during this run. [Back: Kim, Marion, Megan, Dani; Front: Karen, Amanda, Theresa, Me]
 

Quick update on me: No change in my symptoms. Despite the nausea/GERD crap, I'm enjoying my runs lately! I ran my longest run since my full a month ago (13.5 miles) and I'm only 34.49 miles away from meeting my goal of 2015 miles in 2015!!! What a blessing this year has been despite a tough ending!

Friends supporting friends. It's a beautiful thing. [Trevor, Me, Amanda, Theresa "the machine" M-S]

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Tell me about your VERY FIRST running experience!!!