Almost 14 years ago tragedy struck and I experienced one of the lowest points of my life. My Father passed away suddenly and in an instant my whole life changed. A month after my Father’s passing I discovered that I was pregnant with my second child. I was extremely grateful to be blessed with another healthy baby boy. At that time I was still grieving and was also suffering from post par tum depression. I had also gained an excessive amount of weight during my second pregnancy. All of these factors combined made it difficult to motivated myself to do anything. My family is the number one priority in my life. I decided that I needed to get healthy so I could be the best mom and wife that I could possibly be. I had finally set my fitness goals when I received some unfortunate news. The doctors diagnosed me with an injury that resulted from pregnancy. It was so serious that I was not able to workout or even go for walks with my children. I knew that it would be difficult to lose weight without exercising, so I really had to focus on nutrition and a balanced healthy diet. In September 2009 I was finally able to exercise again. My sister and I set a goal to run in a 10k road race. I had to start from scratch by walking 4 minutes and running one minute. I took it one step at a time and one day at a time. I had great runs and I had terrible runs, but I always stayed focused on my goal. On race day I completed the entire 10k race and felt proud to have accomplished my goal. The odds were against me, but with with hard work and dedication, I was able to succeed. Crossing the finish line made all of the training sessions and hard work worth it. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to train for a half marathon. On March 7th, 2010 I completed my first half marathon (13.1 miles). Again the feeling of crossing the finish line was exhilarating. October 2017 I complete my first full marathon!