The First time I ever ran in a race was the "Run Moscow 2012" race in Russia.  I had seen signs for many races but the slogan for *this* race was "You versus Yourself"  which reached me at a deep level and inspired me to run.  I never ran before because I knew I would never be the fastest, I'd never get a medal, but something about "Running against yourself" and you being your only competitor got me to sign up and start running, with almost no preparation!

On Race day, I was warming up with the other 10,000 participants, and during that time, someone stole my phone from my pocket!  It was my first run, so I didn't know to put it in a zippered pocket, and it was hanging out on my side.  I ran about 2km looking for my phone, trying to use 'findmyiphone' to  catch the thief from a public computer terminal, but they got too far away.  I was SO UPSET.

But I thought, "well, I cannot call anyone to tell them about my bad news, and I have nothing else to so, so I will RUN."  It was a great stress reliever, and I finished in under an hour!  I never got my phone back, but I never stopped running either )