Growing up, I never would have imaged I would be where I am today. I was never a sports or track and field person, as I was cursed with having bad knees since infancy. In fact my family thought that I would walk with a limp my whole life, but thankfully after years of physical therapy on my knees, I walk just fine. However, since I was in high school I would always occasionally have knee pains, In these cases I'd end up back in PT until my knee stopped hurting.

By the time I was almost done with college, I decided to try to end my knee pains once and for all by having a lateral release surgery on my knees. I had my right knee operated on and It was something that I've always regretted. So I never had my left knee done.

It took me over six months to be able to walk without crutches and two years to be able to run. In that time I had already gained 50-60lbs. Ironically even after that surgery, my knees were still in pain, and this time I feel it was due to the added weight that my body went through.

By 2018 I was trying to get back into being more active by playing my favorite dance game video game, Dance Dance Revolution. I figured I would be able to use playing DDR as a workout routine, and it was kind of working but I wasn't getting as much progress as I wanted to.

By 2020 right before the lock down I met my boyfriend, he was really into fitness and running. And that's when it happened. During the lock down, when everything was closed, the best way we spent time together was through going for walks at the park. Those walks turned to one mile runs eventually, and I gotta tell you, I struggled, I was huffing and puffing because I hadn't run like that in over ten years, running the required 1 mile run during P.E. Eventually 1 mile runs, turned to 2 mile runs, and I worked my way up to I could finally do a 5K run, thats 3.11 miles. My goal was to be able to participate in a 5K race. The day after Thanksgiving 2020, I ran my very first 3.11 miles, and by January 2021, I ran my first virtual 5K, The Hot Cake Hustle. By then I had realized that I had lost enough weight to fit back into dresses that I hadn't worn in 10 years.

So this is just the beginning of my story, there was a lot of things that went into this, including how I changed my diet, the running and exercise routines, and strength training I did to help my knee muscles get stronger to be able to have me run my runs.

I hope with this blog I will be able to expand on all this and share my story, so it can inspire and help others who may have similar situations.