a love story

Miles today: 3.2

Miles in 2010: 66.1

I had to run after work today, so I was mentally preparing for the run while counting the cash drawer. While doing so, there was a knock on the front door of the store, and to my pleasant surprise, Gregg showed up. He just told me he figured I might enjoy a partner on my run.

He's the best.

And so I tell you...a love story ♥

Gregg, my fiancé and I, met while training on the Virginia 10-Miler course in September of 2007. Here's our little story (told in 3rd person...just because...):

Gregg and Heather couldn't have been any further from looking for the right girl/guy in the fall of 2007.

Heather was twenty-five and had pretty much given up on all the cowboys, bad guys, pharmacists, and muscleheads in Lynchburg.

Gregg was almost forty and hadn't found a girl who he wanted to hang out with all the time.

She was busy getting ready for her first half-marathon in August. He was busy helping his friend, Sarah, train for the same half-marathon.

She won a free pair of Mizunos at the race. He noticed Heather at that same race.

About a month later, Heather was out on Langhorne Road, training for the Virginia Ten Miler. Gregg ran up behind her on Farm Basket Hill heading back to E.C. Glass High school and passed her.

She was resting in the parking lot when he came up to her and introduced himself. She declined his offer to stop by the Corner Cafe.

In October, she went to the Corner Cafe for the first time with some friends and saw the owner of the running store, Jeff, there and said hi. Gregg was there with Jeff and noticed Heather again.

In November, Heather saw Gregg at the Lynchburg Road Runners monthly meeting where he asked again if she wanted to stop by the Corner Cafe. She was busy that night. It was less than a week later that Heather and Gregg finally started to talk.

She was out for a run, and stopped by the Corner Cafe. Gregg was there and the two of them started to talk for the first time. By the time they were done, it was getting dark and Gregg offered Heather a ride to her car in his new BMW Z4 convertible. She politely accepted and when he dropped her off, he asked for her number. Since it was almost Thanksgiving, and shre was replacing her broken phone when she got home to PA, she told him not to call her until after Thanksgiving, to which he complied.

It was the following week, on a Thursday, when she would hear from him again, and they got together to hang out. The following Saturday was the Annual Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic 5K and Gregg offered to pick Heather up and take her to the race in Bedford, Virginia. He surprised her with a vanilla latte, which she drank (even though at the time, she didn't like coffee at all) and they spent the morning hanging out at the race. It was after that race that Gregg and Heather couldn't stop hanging out with each other...and would soon be inseparable.