I am married to a wonderful man since May 1983 whom I met at my high school job at a local grocery store. On our first date, we discovered that we were born one day apart. We were both cashiers and we enjoyed our jobs, but I had planned on continuing on to college. I then attended the University of Texas and graduated in Education in 1984. There was a mutual attraction to each other so we were married in May of that same year. Eventually we were blessed with our two boys. Our pairing seemed like destiny since we had so many other similar interests.

Before I had children, walking and jogging became such a joy that I entered several runs. The first one was called the Jingle Run in the month of January so the weather was quite chilly. My mother and I put jingle bells on our feet so we jangled while we jogged. It was very musical to put everyone into a joyous mood.

Since this race was so much fun, my mom and I geared up for the Capital 10,000. We began taking longer walks in our local park. This was a special bonding time for us.

In April of that same year, my mom and I participated in the Capital 10,000. This race is 10,000 meters or 6.2 miles. It was scary for me because I had never done anything remotely like this before, but we were determined to finish the race. We kept encouraging each other to keep jogging. The race went well and we jogged the entire time! I felt like the tortoise in the story “The Tortoise and the Hare. “ We were just jogging along slowly, but winning was not our goal. Our goal was being able to complete the race at all. This was a success in our eyes when we both finished the race!