Annette's running story

Alright, let's get this blog moving with some stories. When you get a chance, share the story of when/how you started running. I'll go first.

I couldn't run at all in high school. Fitness tests were embarrassing. Mr. Fultz made fun of me because I couldn't run around the track four times. Ack!

Inspired by my college roommate, Emily, who was a cross-country runner, I tried running a few times in college. It didn't take.

Finally, right before Rob and I got married, I moved to a new apartment in Atlanta. The complex backed up to Freedom Park, home of a great network of urban running and biking trails. I saw so many people running by every morning and thought, "there must be something to this!" And "how much easier must it be to stay in shape when all I have to do is walk out my front door to start my workout!" Thus began Netto the runner :)

It was hard at first; there was a lot more walking than running. I ran my first race with Toni the week of our wedding. Toni was training for her marathon, so she was a hard-core runner by that time. Me, not so much. But I did meet my goal of not getting passed by any walkers. See? We were 73rd and 74th place, and Toni let me take the 3rd place age group trophy. (As an aside, my mom did not approve of my plan to run a race the week of our wedding. She pictured me biting the dust and coming home with a bloody face or something. Toni joked that she was going to call my mom after the race and tell her that I had sprained my ankle. Bad Toni!)

The awesome thing about being a beginner is that it's pretty easy to make significant improvements. Two months later, I ran in the Four Seasons Run for Research and took more than 2 minutes off my time. (The Run for Research has become one of my favorite yearly races. It raises money for cancer research, there are awesome raffle prizes--it is sponsored by the Four Seasons, after all--and in 2007 it was my first sub-30 min. 5K.)

In 2007, I decided to train for the Peachtree Road Race with my friend Cindee. She is a good runner and a firm taskmaster. There were many times when I said "Cindee, I'm going to walk the rest of the way up the hill" and she said "No." Um, okay. But I made it up the hill every time and was better for it. Without her encouragement, I would have never thought I could run a 10K! We ran the Peachtree Road Race together and finished in 1:04.

I've run two more Peachtrees since then. Michele came down and ran with me last year, which was lots of fun. Of course, I gave up on trying to keep up with her after two miles, but it was fun anyway :)


After seeing that I could run a 10K, I had thought about making the jump to a half marathon. (Never a full marathon...I'm not that crazy! :) But I had never committed to training for a half until Toni suggested it this year as a girls' get-together. I am so psyched that we were able to come up with a race that works for all of us! (Don't ask me how psyched I am at the end of a 10-mile training run, though...)

So, how did y'all become running superstars? :)