The beginning.

I ran my first 10k in college-February 17, 1996, in Charlotte.

Now before you go thinking that I remember the date because it was an earth shattering day in my running career, that the skies opened up after the race and I realized that running is my passion, that I was born to run, or that I remember the date because I'm some type of date savant, allow me to tell you that that day was my roommate Ashley's birthday, and that we were running the race together. A celebratory race, if you will.

Missy also joined us, as did Joe, Ashley's brother. Incidentally, Joe had been out of running for a while and decided that wearing brand spanking new white shoes would be a wise decision. It wasn't.

At any rate, we ran the race. I have no idea what my time was, or my friends' times. I just know that we ran and we enjoyed it, that it was a fun thing for us to do together.

Fourteen years later (seriously?? Is that possible?) here I am, getting ready to train for my first marathon. I'm running the New York marathon on November 7th for Team in Training, and am running in honor of Davis Taylor, a 6 year old here in Greenville. More on that and more on him later!

I'm skeptical, to say the least, about the idea of writing a blog about my training, my running, etc, because doing so assumes that you want to hear what I have to say about it. And your life is probably so saturated with blogs and websites and blackberries that the last thing you want to do is read another one, add another personal site where someone is blah blah blahhing all the time about blisters, body glide, and burpies. Not to mention this blog is low budge, as in no give-aways, no material motivations, no kitchen-aid mixers to send to you, no handmade adorable crafts...though truth be told I am cleaning out my basement and who knows what I'll come up with.(Vera Wang bridesmaid dress anyone? Letter books from kindergarten, circa 1984? Porcelain birthday dolls, ages 1-18? Riverside Shakespeare? )

So if you're up for it, I'd love for you to join me, here or out on the road. Or both. There are miles to go before I sleep-or don't sleep, as the case may be, because I know I won't the night before the race on November 7th-so come on.

Let's do this.