So back in the day I was dating a guy who was a runner and it got me into running (I was terrible at it back then and am only marginally better now). I ran my first 5K race in VA when I lived there and hated it, but I refused to give up (the next year I won for my age range in that same race... I may have been one of two people or even the ONLY one in my age range but so what?!?!?!) And I've never looked back. Last spring I did something silly, I got all excited about a race here in Turkey: the Istanbul Marathon 8K race. I decided I would run it and I made sure I would by telling all my friends and signing up as many as I could with me. Well, D-day was this past Sunday. And in the drizzling rain and cold winds, I stood with my super cool running shirt from the race (it's in the picture) on the Asian side of Istanbul and starting running at 9am. I ran over the bridge and into Europe and 8km later (1 hour, 10 minutes, and 32 seconds if you are as slow as me), I completed that race... soaked to the bone, but so happy. Running across that bridge that spans 2 continents was so cool, running past the 5km mark and still feeling like I had more to give was awesome, reaching the finish line in my normal training time and STILL feeling like a could have gone a little longer well... that was priceless for me!!! So, thanks KJ, for being a runner and influencing me to take up the sport... next stop? 10 KM at the Runtalya Race in Antalya, Turkey in March!! ;)
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