I grew up in a small town in Northern Michigan called Cadillac and I am the oldest of three. When I was young I was certain of one thing, I wanted to go fast. Running, biking, skiing, etc. I sought out others comfortable with risk and chemically bonded with them by way of adrenaline. My biggest drive to run was my need to escape from the stress within our home. A random brisk run would release endorphins and provide recognition all in one. My junior year of high school, I met Nuria DeSoto, an exchange student from Madrid, Spain. I was able to distinguish myself from th other drooling boys becasue I was the only one who could pronounce her name correctly, "Nudia." We sat next to each other in psychology class and flirted constantly. We were both damaged and hid the dirt from each other. We were terrified the truth would ruin our love. Unwilling to dive deeper and get past our own insecurities we broke up after 6 months and she moved back to Spain. Again at 19 years old we fell deeply in love only to be divided by an ocean and our lingering fear. I performed to the top of my sport, the Olympics in 1996, hoping she would see me running in Europe and come down from the stands so I could kiss her again. It never happened and I married another for 12 years that failed and I found myself lost looking for a love like my first in my late 30's. At 39, Facebook would deliver a friend request from her that made me feel young and in love again. The rest of the story is full of tremendous courage and sacrifice to join forever what was broken when we were young. We now have a little girl together and we wonder less about what would have been.