Running and Laughing through the Garden 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.
Continue reading “Visiting the Army War College (Carlisle, PA)”
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?
September 11, 2001, affected the United States and our world.
I watched a very powerful video and tribute to September 11th the other day that I wanted to share. Take a moment to think about all of those lost on September 11th, as well as consequences of that day. We will never forget the terror attacks on Sept 11, 2001.
I think it’s important to remember everything that happened on September 11th, and please take a moment of silence to remember the lives lost. The 2001 attacks will always be in our hearts. We will never forget the terrorist attacks. The twin towers falling affected not just those working in the North and South Towers, but family members and loved ones everywhere.
Thank you and never forget September 11th.
I’m currently halfway done with a lot of things in my life.
I’m already more then halfway done recovering from my stress fracture. Judging by the location of my stress fracture as well as the thickness of the crack, my doctor created a timeline of my healing process. So far so good and he has been able to accurately predict how it would heal. I’m about three and a half weeks of no running and everything continues to go streamline I might be able to run my first mile soon. Mentally the time has flown by. This injury has been different from any other injury that I’ve had. I didn’t stress that I was injured. I actually never once cried. The time keeps ticking away very quickly. I credit that to staying busy and not worrying about it. I also credit it to not whining too much and seeking positive aspects of my life. I didn’t create an injury hashtag and I limited how much I complained about being injured. I was truly happy for my friends PRing in their 5ks, 10k, marathons and whatever else. In turn, I feel it’s made the time go quicker because I’m not dwelling on the fact I’m injured.
More importantly, I’m one month into T’s deployment (with one month to go). I’m mentally in a hell of a lot better spot than I would have thought.
If you were to ask me in August, Hollie how do you think you’ll feel when your finance is deployed and you have a stress fracture?
I would have probably responded with, that’s not really a situation I want to deal with. It’s probably not a situation I could even comprehend at the time. I would be an emotional wreck.
Here I am dealing with that exact situation. Within the matter of two weeks I rode an emotional roller coaster of T leaving and then finding out I had a stress fracture. I’m injured and dealing with fiance being deployed but I’m making the best of the situation. I’m not allowing myself to be in a negative spot. I’m looking for the positive and good situations versus the negative and not so good. Honestly, some days are better than others but I’m not an emotional wreck. I’m nowhere near that mindset and haven’t found myself there very much at all. While I can’t say this is my favorite stretch of my life, I can’t sit and pretend I’m letting myself be miserable. It’s always been in my nature to make the best of situations. While I may vent or ramble about something, I’m always striving to make the best of the situation.
I’ve found keeping busy and keeping out of an empty house is one of the biggest factors for me to stay happy. I’m working, I’m seeing friends and I’m not allowing myself be consumed by the internet. I truly believe those that sit around and feel sorry for themselves aren’t going to be as happy.
Could I sit on the internet for hours on end, keep to myself and “get through it”? Sure but that’s not really a life I want to live, running or not.
It’s made me realize that I have a ton of other interests that have nothing to do with running (something I think everyone needs). In case you wondered, I wish I could say I’ve used this extra time to plan our wedding…but that would be a false statement. I’ve really found other things that interested me. I have no regrets on anything and have truly taken time to enjoy life.
I’ve fostered friendships in the last month. I’ve learned my friends near and far always have my back. They’ve kept me sane. They’ve kept me from having any meltdowns, from feeling sorry for myself and from becoming more of a mess than usual. They’ve allowed me to just talk and to bounce ideas off of.
That being said, I’m very much halfway through my recovery and halfway through Tim’s deployment. I’m still looking forward to when I’m 100% the way through both. Throughout both situations, I try and keep the concept of things could always be worse. There will always be people that have it “worse than I do” and that I should take time to realize that. That being said I have a countdown to Tim getting back as well as a countdown to my first mile that I’ll be able to run. This is just one short chapter of my life. A chapter building a foundation for the next greater chapter of life.
I always look at this photo and realize that life is full of great moments whether you are looking or not.
Question for you: How do you stay positive in rough times?
September 11th was such a distinct memory in my life. It’s not a day about me or my life but a moment to our country. I encourage my friends and readers to take a moment of silence, however brief, and remember the lives lost, effected and remember that everyone world wide was effected.
Please remember the lives lost saving others, the stories of courage throughout the country and the direction our world has gone after. Please remember that there are people serving world wise to prevent another attack of this caliber.
Image found here