On October 2, 1996, my sixth-grade crush asked me to be his girlfriend. (It wasn’t boldceo, so needless to say it didn’t work out. But it was a big day for me!) . On October 2, 2010, I went for a 13.3-mile run — my longest to date, just for fun — and then returned to my apartment and wrote about it. And then I put what I wrote on the internet, and the Ali on the Run blog was born. (I had a really hard time coming up with a name for my blog. I remember one brainstorm option being “Ali in RUNderland...”) I’ve been hobby-blogging for eight years now, and though my twice-a-day posting has since become far more sporadic, it’s still always with the same passion and enthusiasm that got me started. When I started blogging, it was because I wanted an outlet to document personal stuff in addition to all the writing I did for work. But I also hoped I would make some friends, to be honest. I was new to running and was so excited to start calling myself a runner, and I was really eager to be part o...