I am full on, gushing, and madly in love with change. Good change. I love seeing it in other people and if I, even get to witness it first hand, I feel like magic and fulfills my being. So, go figure, why I love my job…right! Making new runner, sending them off on a journey of awesome and witnessing the change it hold. Fuck YEAH!! This is the first kick off of new weekly blog called Testify Tuesday, where people talk about the changes they went though to become the person they are now. AND I couldn’t be more proud of the first one up! Our own Runner of the Year and Team Evolve member, Erika Parker, in her own words.
“In early 2011, I decided that I needed a goal, an outside of my comfort zone kind of goal, doing something that I didn’t think I could do kind of goal. So I asked my friend and trainer Sara Dean if she could help me train for a 5k. That distance seemed pretty daunting to a non runner and someone that hated running (me). She referred me to Beth Baker of Running Evolution and her couch to 5k program. I started with Beth and completed couch to 5k in May 2011. After my first 5k, I kept running every week with Beth and soon enough my goal was to do a 10k, which I did in August 2011. Then Beth said well if you can do a 10k, why not train for a half marathon? Now at this time I thought people who did half marathons were just nuts, I mean it’s 13 MILES!! But the seed was planted and you guessed it, I trained and ran a half marathon in May 2012. Of course Beth then said to me if you can do a half marathon, you can TOTALLY do a full…So here I am in 2015, I’ve run 21 half marathons, 1 full marathon and countless 5&10k races. All thanks to Beth & Running Evolution. Along the way on this crazy running journey, I have met some of the most fantastic, inspiring and wonderful people. Thank you Beth!”