I started running seriously my sophomore year of high school. I ran for the Port Washington High School’s Cross Country team from 2005-2007. My teammates ended up becoming really fast. In 2007 we made a bit of history for our school by qualifying for the NY State race as a team for the first time since 1964. Two years later in 2009, some of my former teammates took third place at the same meet.
During my freshman year in college I sporadically ran with the Binghamton University Running Club. They too ended becoming a force to recon with but that was a few years after I stopped running.
After my freshman year, it became more and more difficult to find motivation to run until I eventually stopped. For the next 8 years I ran a few miles here and there. It wasn’t until the summers during my second and third internship at PayPal that I started getting back into running. The brutally cold winters awaiting my return in upstate NY, however, killed any and all momentum.
After I moved out west and joined PayPal full time in 2017, I started racking up mileage much more consistently. In 2018 I ran my first half-marathon.
Since then, I’ve run four more and plan on running many more.
I credit my co-worker Misho with my return to the starting line.