Love at First Run

Hey guys!

I’m taking a break from my typical weekly training recap because I want to tell you the story of how Daniel and I met. The US Open is on, which always reminds me of meeting Daniel (we both like watching tennis and we were both big fans of Melanie Oudin at the 2009 US Open), and our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks, so this seemed like an appropriate time to do a little reminiscing.

First, let’s get the training part out of the way. I got good news at the doctor Monday. Thankfully, my ribs are not broken (or cracked), but I have a sprained muscle somewhere in there. With Dr. Justin’s blessing, I was able to run this week, but I had to take it slow and steady. I wasn’t really able to do any workouts, because deep breathing was causing me a decent amount of pain.

I saw him again later in the week. He taped me up and he said that it was probably okay to try some workouts.

I discussed the situation with my coach and he agreed that I would continue my regular mileage this week (including my regularly scheduled long-run) and we will pick back up with the workouts next week. The crazy thing is that I actually fell again yesterday! This time I was biking with my training group and I was so lucky that I didn’t fall on my ribs. I got a few new and improved scrapes, but otherwise I came away fine. I had a really good long run today, so I am ready to get back to it this week!

Now that we are caught up there, let me tell you our little running fairy tale. First let me set the stage …

Daniel and I both grew up in the same hometown. We were in different grades and went to different schools, so we didn’t really know each other. I took piano lessons with his sisters, but that was about as close as we got to actually meeting each other (apparently he wasn’t paying all that much attention at those recitals). We ended up as Facebook friends somewhere along the way, but we didn’t really know each other.

Daniel ran cross county at the University of Mobile and I moved to Mobile after school to start my first “big-girl” job as a CPA. At this point, I wasn’t running very much (comparatively speaking). I ran a few days a week, never more than 15 to 20 miles per week and I always ran inside on the treadmill. This is going to sound crazy, and it is totally a God-thing, but I felt like I was supposed to contact Daniel about running. I didn’t really even know this guy, but I knew that this was something I was supposed to do. After deliberating about that for a little bit, I finally got the nerve up to send him a message.

So that’s where this whole thing started. He basically responded to me with a ton of information about local running groups, local races, etc. and after going back and forth a few times, we decided that we would meet after work one day to run together in Mobile. Keep in mind, we really didn’t even really know each other at this point. He knew who I was, mainly because of what had happened to me (he didn’t remember the piano thing at all, haha) and he knew that I was a big tennis player. I knew that he was a preacher’s kid and that he ran XC at UM and that was about it.

We met for a run one Friday afternoon (September 11th, 2009 to be specific) and we ended up running 4 loops of the route that we planned to run, which was 8 miles total and I don’t even know how I even survived. That was the longest I had run in a while! We talked the whole time (about running, tennis, skiing, people that we knew in common, etc.) and the rest is kind of history.

But that’s not as much fun, so I am going to tell you more …

We ran together a few times after that. I met his training group for track on Tuesday evening and we did a long run together. We were supposed to do another long run the next Sunday, so I got up really early and drove across the bay to meet him. And he didn’t show up! I was majorly disappointed. He texted me later in the day saying that he was so sorry and that he had set him alarm for PM instead of AM (he was working nights shift at this point, so that was semi-understandable) and that he wanted to make it up to me.

I invited him to come over to watch the sunset, play croquet (so random I know) and go to dinner. Later he told me that he was a little bit scared when I invited him to play croquet. I think he was picturing some fancy polo-type game, but really it was just an old croquet set that my grandparents had for years and we always played for fun. Nothing fancy. At all. Anyway, he came over that night, met Pop (my grandfather) and my mom and we played croquet, got eaten alive my mosquitoes (but neither one of us mentioned it to the other one, we just kept talking and getting chewed up) and ate dinner at Cousin Vinny’s.

If he wasn’t scared off at this point, I figured we were doing pretty good, but I still couldn’t figure out if he actually liked me like *that* or not. I figured that first dinner out was more of a “pity date.” If he hadn’t stood me up that morning, it wouldn’t have happened. It was always just very friendly and casual, but we got along really well and we always had a great time together. We hung out a few times over the next few weeks. We went kayaking, ran a 5K, went to dinner a few times, but it was all still just as friends.

Until it wasn’t. One Friday evening (October 16th, 2009 to be specific and yes, I have all of this documented in my planner from 2009) we went to dinner and had “the talk.” I had always called it a DTR (define the relationship), but Daniel called it the WUWU (what’s up with us). What do kids these days call this I wonder? Anyway, this was like the ultimate DTR. That night we decided that we were officially “dating” and that we were going to get married. I kid you not. It was just like one of those things that we both knew. It was just right and it was a total God-thing. Daniel called his parents that night to tell them and his parents said, “Yeah. We knew she was going to be the one.” How cool?!

I mean, he didn’t propose to me that night or anything crazy like that. He waited a month or two to buy the ring, talk to my parents and then finally to ask me on January 9th, 2010. We got married here on the bay on September 18th, 2010.

Oh and of course, we ran a 5K the day of our wedding!

That pretty much concludes this installment of how we met. Something that really stands out to me now, that I hadn’t really even realized until somewhat recently is that had it not been for what happened to me, I would have never sent Daniel that first message asking about “safe” places to run and looking for people to run with. It’s really amazing to see how God takes a bad situation and uses it for our good and for His glory. Genesis 50:20 says, “Don’t you see, you planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good.” I love that verse.

We have now been married (almost) five years and while there have definitely been highs and lows (we have both had some great accomplishments and both have made some really bad decisions), the most important thing is that we are in this thing together. As Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, “two are better than one” and I am very thankful to have found my lifetime “plus-one.”

How did you meet your significant other? I’d love to hear about it!