About Me

My name is Mary.  I'm 26 years old.  I recently moved to Maryland from New Jersey.  I am an accountant.
I grew up as a tom boy, I have always loved sports.  Between five and twenty years old I was on tee ball, soccer, softball, and field hockey teams.  I played other sports just for fun, too, like intramural volleyball, football, and softball in college.  Field hockey was by far my favorite thing when I was younger.  I played for eight years (5th grade until a senior in high school).  I was captain on my 8th grade team, made varsity all hour years in high school, and was captain my junior year, as well.  What stopped me from playing in college?  Simple.  I hated to run.  I was never "good" at running.  I was slow and just never found my stride.  Whenever we did team runs, they plopped me int he front and ran at my pace because I was one of the slowest players.  Now today I wouldn't care about that, but back then it made me self conscious.  My coach's favorite phrase during preseason was "meet me at the track."  I hated those words because I hated running, with a passion.  As much as I loved being on the field, I always despised practices.
After my freshman year of college, I stayed at our family beach house and took summer classes.  Everyday after I went to school I would run.  If I hated it so much, why would I torture myself.  Well I was by myself during the week and it got lonely down there, so I needed something to do.  It started out rough, but I eventually worked up to four miles.  Now that may not sound like a lot, but for me is was such a huge accomplishment!  And I actually started to enjoy it!  I saw a change in my physical appearance and all around I just felt better.  Once classes ended, my routine changed somehow running was put on the back burner until I eventually stopped.  Over the next hour years, I ran off and on, well, mostly off.  In early 2012 I heard about Disney having races and I toyed with the idea of doing one.  The dream became reality when I registered for the 2013 Princess Half Marathon.  And my journey began.

Seven months after signing up, I completed my first half marathon in the happies place on earth!  It felt incredible to do something I never dreamed I could accomplish.  Six weeks later I crossed the finished line of my second 13.1 mile race.

And now my journey continues...

Follow me on twitter:  @marybpoppins