Running and Laughing through the Golden State
Running and Laughing through the Golden State
Over the next month or so, I’ll be sharing things we stopped to do on our cross country move. I’m not the best at traveling because I need to stop every so often to stretch my legs. With the pandemic, I’m picky about where I stop because rest stops or crowded trails aren’t my favorite thing.
Four years ago was the best day of my life because my husband and I got married. We had a wonderful wedding, and there is nothing we would have wanted differently.
As most people know, he is in the military and has been gone a lot. While his deployments aren’t long (about two months), they are frequent and so are his other trips. I won’t say it’s been easy and there have been plenty of hard days. I will say we are still as happy as the day we met.
Today I knew today I wanted to post about our anniversary but had no idea what to post. I finally settled on a “how we met post.” Many long term readers know “how we met,” but many people don’t. I’m always interested to see how other people met their significant other, so I thought I would share.
My husband and I met during college cross country season in 2011. It was a scrimmage race between our respected two universities.
Tim ended up winning the scrimmage race for men, and I won for females. After the scrimmage, we talked for a while and went on a run a few weeks later. Cross country season went by, and we still chatted after the season. During this time, I was coming back from my first serious running injury a tibial stress fracture. Tim did multiple sports and was getting ready for ski season. Since cross country was over, and he was no longer running competitively, running at a slower pace didn’t matter. I was running easy after my injury, and he was running easy just to run.
Eventually, after several runs, we hung out outside of running. When the semester ended, we both went to our hometowns for the winter break. Tim drove down to Virginia Beach and visited for New Years.
Later in the spring, we officially started “officially dating”. I was blogging at the time, and I don’t think I even mentioned on the blog: OMG you guys, a new boy in my life”.
In May of 2012, we both graduated from college and decided to try a long distance relationship. Our options at that point were long distance or break up.
Tim went to Air Force Undergraduate Pilot school in Texas, and I began working in Oswego, NY. During that time, we both learned a lot about ourselves, interests and hobbies. We went just over six months without seeing each other. It was one of the hardest times of our relationship but worth it. The first time we saw each other again was that Thanksgiving, and it was as if nothing had changed.
After Thanksgiving, we saw each other again for Christmas, then in March and in May. It was a lot easier than the first few months. After nearly a year of distance, we made the decision I would move to Texas. As much as I enjoyed my job in Oswego, I wanted to continue my relationship with Tim, and we had to eventually move (he did not have that choice).
Then in late 2013, Tim graduated his pilot training, and we were told we would be moving to New Jersey. Neither of us knew anything about NJ (except people drive very quickly on the Turnpike).
I’ve now lived in NJ for five years, and I love it. We never thought we would stay here this long, but I don’t mind. I’ve made incredible friends, I enjoy my job and there is always something to do. We are only a few miles from Philadelphia and a short (3-6 hour) drive from both of our parents, New York City and Baltimore.
On April 1, 2014, Tim proposed to me. It was exactly what I wanted, low key and at our house. We are low key, and I could not have asked for a better proposal. As much as we both love running, proposing at a race or in front of hundreds of people is not either of our scenes. Neither are big crowds or making a huge scene.
Even though we lived in New Jersey, we decided to get married in my hometown area in Norfolk, Virginia. We spent a year wedding planning and got married on April 12, 2015. While planning a wedding further away was more difficult, it wasn’t as stressful because we both have such supportive and helpful parents. For each of the things. We couldn’t have dreamed for a better day.
After our wedding, we took a few days to relax and went straight on our honeymoon. We decided to spend a few days in Key West and go on a cruise in the Carribean. It was a great vacation, and it was perfect.
Then a few days after we got home, he was deployed for a while. For the first six months of our marriage, he was gone for just over 4. Afterward, he was home for a bit more, but for the past four years, he has been a lot.
Throughout the first few years of marriage, we have learned a lot about ourselves and each other. Even though I grew up as a military child, being a spouse much different. It’s not always easy, but the time we do have together makes it worth it. I’m also thankful for my family and friends who help me get by.
We aren’t able to celebrate today, but that is okay. We might talk today; we might not. It doesn’t mean I love my husband any less. I could not ask for a better person in my life.
Although we met through running and it’s a part of both our lives we do a lot of other things together too.
Here are some other posts about my husband and I (or just my husband):
Wedding Post
Honeymoon
Flying Together
Tim’s Recap of the Mercedes Marathon
Questions for you: How did you meet your spouse? When is your anniversary?
Today is an extremely hard day for me. As I said last week, I was not really doing well with Tim deploying. Luckily for me, I have family and friends that have really taken care of me lately. I would truly be lost without them. So thank you.
I know these next few months will go by quickly. Dating and now engaged to someone in the military is not always easy. It’s not fun to wave goodbye on long trips. It’s not fun to wave goodbye on deployments but the time we have together makes everything worth it.
I truly appreciate everyone’s love and support.
This is an extremely personal post. I’ve always used my blog to continue my honesty with not only my readers but myself as well.
I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress lately. Stress within myself. Stress because Tim is leaving very soon. Stress with running. Work doesn’t stress me out thank goodness and blogging is an outlet for me to reflect and remove some of my stress. Saying I’m edgy would be putting it nicely.
I don’t deal with stress well. I try to keep myself out of a position that would result in a high stress environment. Some people deal well with intense and fast paced lifestyles, I’m not one of them. Being introverted and also having social anxiety, I don’t think it’s fairly suprising.
When I get stressed I tend to get sick. I don’t know why or even if they are related but I get sick. I know in my personal life that when I do start to feel these symptoms, it’s time to step back. It’s time to take a step and back and evaluate my lifestyle choices and what is contributing to them.
So I guess my point is it’s important for me to take a step back and evauluate why I’m so stressed.
I know partially it’s because Tim is leaving for a deployment soon. I’ve been able to deal with him being gone for a couple of weeks here and there but this is much longer. It’s even harder because he has had a couple of trips and important tasks to do which has led to him not being home very much beforehand. I won’t say it’s easy and I won’t say I haven’t cried several times but it’ a reality of our lives. A reality that we must (and are) working through. We are incredibly happy together and I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone elses.
Another stressor is beginning to run again. While I committed to running Wineglass in 8 weeks, I can pull that plug anytime. Nothing is stopping me from doing so. My ultimate goal is to run a healthy race.
While I want to complete Wineglass and would love to PR, I also want to regain my confidence in running. I have all the intentions to run Wineglass but my goals as a runner and a person have changed.
Just typing my emotions, feelings and thoughts out loud I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve lost my confidence and it’s stressing me out. A lot of people (myself included) take confidence for granted. To do and want something, you have to believe you will.
To want success, you have to believe you will have it.
To achieve your dreams, you must believe you can.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy and truly love my life. This is one of the first times I’ve been able to say that from the bottom of my heart. My friends, my family, my support system…everyone is truly great. However, my confidence is low and that is something that must come from within. It’s the reason I posted twice today or that I turned off the comments. I have always blogged for myself and to get my emotions and thoughts out.
Somewhere in the last few months I let life take control of me. I did not take control of my life. When I think and come to terms with that I realize that I am capable of whatever I want. I just need to believe I am.