Our story began way back in 2004, Hailey a sophomore, TR a senior in high school. Both big into basketball, and Hailey with a big crush on #4, TR Jamar.
We hung out some in high school, your typical small town Friday night backroading or hanging out at the river, but we never dated. Fast forward to 2015, Hailey in OT School in Louisville, KY, TR living back in Arkansas after serving 8 years in the Navy. Hailey returns home to Arkansas for a Razorback football game and TR just coincidentally shows up to the tailgate with a mutual friend. After not seeing each other for ~10 years, we immediately reconnected all over again, and that was that.
From there we made frequent trips between Arkansas and Louisville while Hailey finished OT school. Hailey had a goal to run at least a half marathon in every state as a way to see the country. A month or so into dating TR ran his first half-marathon ever in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Way underprepared, but just trying to impress the girl.
Six months of long-distance courtship later we began our adventure with a road trip to New Braunfels, Texas where we would begin to share each day. We found an apartment right on the river where we could float the Comal River and go past the last public access point all the way to our backyard!
It was soon after that when we ran our first trail half-marathon and really became engrossed in the nature aspect of running. 5 years and 33 states later with a few trail ultramarathons under our belts it is safe to say that that progress is being made.
On Hailey’s 30th birthday, June 8, 2018 TR surprised her with a proposal at the start of the camping weekend which turned into a perfect celebration. By the next morning while we were having coffee in the hammock overlooking the lake, we decided that we would elope to Banff, Canada just 2 months later during the short break between summer session ending and fall semester resuming.
We road tripped to Banff, knocking out a half marathon in North Dakota along the way. We got married at sunrise standing on the banks of Moraine Lake where we each vowed to share a lifetime of adventure together.
From Banff we drove to Jasper National Park, then through Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Denver and ended the trip in Fayetteville with a party to celebrate with family and friends, sharing our videos so that everyone got to be a part of our adventure. It was the trip of a lifetime and we most certainly would not have wanted it any other way!
3 years later after we made it through PT school we are convinced that we are doing things the right way. The experience of having limited days off during breaks from work and school has helped us learn to make the most out of each opportunity given. We look forward to a lifetime of adventures ahead!