I started walking to lose weight because I had reached my highest weight ever. A year into walking, and almost 50 pounds lighter, I decided to see if I could run a lap around the track and survive.

I did it!

I was tired and couldn’t breathe, but surprisingly I loved it. I came back the next day and did it again. Over a couple of weeks I worked my way up to running a mile. After a few months of running on the treadmill a friend convinced me that I could run a 5K. I signed up for one and after that I was hooked.

I went home that night and registered for another 5K. That summer I ran a 5K almost every weekend. Eventually I progressed to running my first half marathon and quickly fell in love with that distance. Next was a full marathon. Shortly after running my fastest half marathon time of 2:30:54 in 2013 I fell and suffered a major knee injury, tearing most of the ligaments in my knee and breaking my fibula. I had knee surgery and was down for six months.

Coming back from that injury is probably the hardest physical challenge I’ve ever experienced. But the reward was worth it! As my newest injury-inspired tattoo says, I “live to run and run to live.”

CCRR was my very first pacing gig, so it is near and dear to my heart. I have also paced the Ann Arbor half marathon 13:30 group and the Gazelle Girl half marathon 13:00 group.