People fall in love in mysterious ways!
We have lots of couples at Totton Running Club. Some joined club together, some existing members convinced their partners to join and several of the clubs 'couples' met each whilst at their worst - hot, sweaty, red faced and gasping for air. To quote Esther Hardie "if you meet someone at running club then surely you are set for life"!
Jenny Baker and Paul Bullen joined TRC together back in the spring and we knew from the outset that they both loved running but what we all didnt know was that they actually met at The Southampton Park Run back in November 2013. On the 7th August this year they tied the knot at a running themed affair near Jenny's childhood home. A perfect example of that you dont find love, it finds you. Its down to destiny, fate and in the case of our running couples how cute they look in lycra and a pair of trainers!
Here is Jenny and Pauls story.....
Who would have thought that running could find love? Jenny and I were both regular park-runners at Southampton and initially we were unaware of each other’s presence. During the month of November 2013 we exchanged smiles for the first time across Southampton Common. Following several weeks of sly glances we eventually spoke and unbeknown to each other we both had the same intention. We have been dating ever since!
After a year together and lots of running dates, we decided to celebrate our year anniversary running a marathon in Florence, the city of love. Not only did we run a successful marathon; Jenny 3:42hrs and my time 3:54hrs, but I also proposed shortly after the race (and she said Yes!).
Jenny and I got married on the 7th of August 2015, 18 months after we first met at Southampton parkrun. We had a running theme throughout the wedding with running figures topping our cake, tables were named with all the different sporting events that we have completed together and Jenny’s bouquet was not thrown over her head but she got the ladies to run around a green twice to see who would ‘win’ the bouquet!
As we met at Southampton parkrun we wanted to celebrate with fellow park-runners and friends, so we ran in our wedding attire! It was a very hot 5k run wearing a suit and a dress, but we still made it round in a reasonable time in just over 22 minutes with Jenny finishing ahead of me; ladies first!
Without parkrun we may never have met!
Mr and Mrs Bullen (Paul and Jenny)
Some of our other running club couples! We have several others but they are a little camera shy! Photos stolen from all over Facebook :-)
