I weighed 310 pounds in 2010, and by 2012, I had lost roughly 100lbs. As an incentive to push myself down into the "normal" weight range, I signed up for a local 5k (this one, obvs). I pushed and I ran, and I lost 40lbs between April and October. Race day came, and it was everything I had hoped it to be. The day was chilly, but people were nice and chatty, and the folks who ran the event kept everything together wonderfully.

I think my favorite part, though, was how no one made the 5k runners feel any less than the half-marathoners. They did their thing, and we did ours, and I feel like that was incredibly important for it being my first race ever. I was hooked on the atmosphere (and the bananas, cookies, and free Chic-fil-a afterward didn't hurt.

Plus, I placed 3rd in my age group, and my wife placed 2nd in hers (it was her first-ever race, too). And WE GOT TROPHIES FOR IT. Not medals, but full-on trophies that we display to this day because it was our introduction to racing, and from that point on, we were hooked.