Running

I've always been fairly active - playing sports in high school and college, making myself run a few miles whenever my jeans were feeling a little too tight, running a half marathon in 2012 when I couldn't control my competitive nature. But it wasn't until this summer that I really found a love of running. After three years in D.C. on my own, I moved to Connecticut, settling in with my fiance and soon-to-be in-laws. Plunging into the last few months of wedding planning, and finding myself without a car and without the wonderfully unreliable metro system I had grown accustomed to, I found a need for freedom. To get some me time.

Running became the perfect outlet for that. I started following the Cool Running Half Marathon Intermediate training schedule my friend had instructed me to use the year before, and after four miles, no one wanted to keep up with me anymore. It became a morning routine for me that I didn't want to miss - some time to think and reflect, with no one in sight and hardly a car passing me by. I grew to love it and to need it. It's become a part of my life, and one I don't want to give up.