We met when I started going to Fabian's CG class. After about a year, my sister and I set a goal to complete a Spartan Race and invited Fabian. At this point, my sister had already begun teasing me about him and I'll admit, I thought he was cute...but he was still our trainer. This trip is when I got to know him outside of his "Trainer Mode" and our friendship began. Eventually, we hung out just about every weekend together with our group of friends. I battled my emotions about him. He was a great guy, and a great friend and I grew to like him more over the time we spent together. But I never wanted to put him in a situation that'd compromise his professionalism. So, I decided I'd never initiate such a conversation. HOWEVER if he were the one to make the move, I'd gladly follow. We shared a year of friendship, movies, concerts, and comic-cons. As time passed, and I grew confused and frustrated. There were moments where we just...SPARKED! It felt like we were in tune with each other, emotionally. Then, we had moments where we were just "platonic friends." I asked God if Fabian really was worth waiting all this time for, or if he was even mine to wait for. He'd given me glimpses of the man he'd become and told me the wait would be worth it. While on my way to a CG Games practice, I had these thoughts heavy on my heart and soul, then God asked me to dig deep to find what qualities of Fabian would make him a good boyfriend for me. He always pushes me out of my comfort zone was number 1. Ironically followed by, him being so calm and level-headed that he could become a place of comfort for me too. Lastly, was his quiet confidence. Fabian knows who he is and is unapologetically him. He's one of the most honest people I know and I think that drew me more to him than anything else. I established these characteristics, told God and felt instant peace. Little did I know that, that same morning, Fabian would take me out to breakfast and finally ask me to be his.

Fast forward 11 months, to Fabian 's Birthday. We're in San Antonio, running our first Spartan of the year together. All I wanted to do was get out of there! I was tired, my knee hurt, but Fabian kept pushing me through (literally). We faced our final obstacle, the fire jump. He took my hand, smiled, and we ran right over the fire jump, hand in hand. As I was going for my medal he pulled me back. Confused, I turned and there he was, down on one knee with a velvet, red box in his hand, asking me the most important question of our relationship. "Rachel, will you marry me?" I was in shock. I was ecstatic. And I wanted to cry and hug him all at once. A few "what's!?" followed by a very certain "Yes!" and some quick kisses later, I was engaged to the man of my dreams and my best friend.

When I really met Rachel, she was trying out CG again with her sister. She was always a bit feisty, and sassy, but a hard worker nevertheless. It wasn't until they decided they wanted to train for a Spartan race that our friendship would begin, but as their trainer I needed to challenge them even more. I made Rachel do the hardest things at camp; run the farthest, lift heavy and encourage her to keep giving it her all. And she did! We made it through that first race weekend in Austin. Afterwards, we became really good friends, did more races, and became amateur cosplayers as Aquaman and Wonder Woman. We'd hang out often with our mutual friends, go out to eat, and watch movies. We had so many common interests... but we were just friends and I didn't want to seem unprofessional! Eventually her passion for fitness lead her to want to become a CG Trainer. She's so smart, and motivated, and positive. I knew she would see it through and be great, because honestly she IS great! I had introduced her to my family and they too had come to love her and see how AWESOME she would be for me. I was finally becoming comfortable with the idea of building and sharing the rest of my life with her, but of course I was nervous that she was too good for me, and I was in denial that maybe she didn't like me in a romantic way because I hadn't expressed a romantic interest either. Then, she baked me a birthday cake and I was okay with letting myself fall in love with her. I left on a business trip and was partnered with another trainer to work events. We talked about where we were from, what we enjoyed doing and if we had any one "special" back home. When she asked me, Rachel was the girl in my heart and mind, even though I hadn't asked her to be mine; in that moment I knew that I wanted to be with Rachel. When I got back from the trip I wanted to take Rachel to dinner to thank her for covering my classes while I was away and also maybe muster up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend?

I decided we would go to a Brazilian Steakhouse in Dallas, so I picked her up from work and off we went. We feasted, ate rolled ice cream, and talked a lot. Well, she talked a lot, I couldn't determine the right time to segway our conversations to ask her, "hey do you want to be my girlfriend?" There was a moment when we were back at the parking lot of her job, still talking in my truck and I wanted to be romantic and grab her face to kiss her and tell her how I felt for her, but I was nervous again. "Is it too much, too soon?" "Would she like it?" and then a security officer came to the window because it was late and we were just there seemingly suspicious! The moment passed and the officer knew Rachel so we just kind of laughed it off nervously and awkward. Needless to say, we had a great dinner, great dessert, great time out and about but we were still just really good friends at the end of that night. The following morning, I decided I NEEDED to ask her. I took her to Chick-fil-A for breakfast after a CG Games training, because she LOVES Chick-fil-A! Again, easy conversation came up and I finally I told her I wanted to talk about us... I placed my hand on top of hers, looked her in the eye and asked her if she thought I would be a good boyfriend for her and if she would want to be my girlfriend. She smiled, nodded and said "yes" as if she had been waiting for me to finally ask her. The relief and joy I felt in her response was just bliss. As the time came for us to leave, I kissed her goodbye, told her I loved her and opened and closed her car door for her. The following months were filled with more memories of great food and great times, traveling, shopping and just spending time together and time with each other's families. We never announced our relationship on Facebook because I'm typically a private person and we wanted to maintain our professionalism. But whenever asked if we were dating it was always an emphatic and resolute "Yes!"

From the bubbling moments in my heart that I began to fall in love with Rachel, I knew that I would also someday marry her. She has so many great talents and qualities that never cease to impress me. There were many moments in our times together that would have been great opportunities to propose if only I had a ring sooner, or even had it with me, like a trip we took to San Francisco, Monterrey, and San Jose California would have been nice, but we were2 months into our relationship and I didn't have a ring for her yet. Or during a summer trip to South Padre Island. We went on a dolphin watch, and dinner on the pier. The night was even capped with a surprise firework show! Or when we went to the Dallas Arboretum sometime in early autumn. In December, after scouring a couple small-business/craftsmen sites I found an example of a ring that finally matched what I wanted for Rachel to have. I ordered it, and a week later it arrived. The day that the ring came in was also a day that we went to a light display at Globe Life Park in Arlington. I almost proposed to her there, but didn't want to miss the chance of capturing the moment by video, or camera. I wanted to propose to her when we took a trip with my family to New Mexico, on top of a mountain, but that didn't pan out. I ruled out the idea of proposing on Valentine's Day because of how cliche it is. We had a trip to San Antonio coming up for a Spartan Race, so maybe I would propose to her out there! Perhaps on the Riverwalk, or at the end of a Spartan Race! Why at a Spartan Race? There were a few reasons that I favored a proposal there. One, there are professional photographers who take pictures of and for all of the participants and the Fire Jump Finish Line is ALWAYS one of the picture stations. Two, at our second Spartan race ever, before Rachel and I were even dating, we had heard of couple that had proposed at the finish line. Rachel was enamored by the idea of that, and I having no idea that it would

be part of my inspiration later gave it no thought. Three, going back to the beginning of our friendship, it was sparked and strengthened because of our mutual interest in Spartan Races and doing them together, so I felt that it was a perfect place to immortalize our coming-full-circle. On March 24th, the day of our first Spartan Race together for the year, and also my birthday, I knew I would make it happen. I would finally ask the woman I love and cherish to marry me. I kept the ring in it's box, safely zipped up in the pocket of the very shorts I was racing in! Rachel actually noticed the box in my pocket as we were warming up and waiting. I casually lied saying it was an extra battery pack for the Go Pro camera headset I was wearing. And she believed me. We ran our race together, and in the final obstacles we went through my excitement and happiness for the moment to come was rising. The fire jump was before us. We waited for racers ahead of us to clear it. I unzipped the pocket that kept the ring box. Grabbed Rachel's hand with my other one, smiled at her and pulled her to run and jump together. After we cleared the fire, I pulled her aside closer to the photographer. I kneeled down, opened the box and asked her to marry me. Her confusion turned to happiness and she said yes. We kissed and embraced and got our finisher medals. All the while the epic and exciting events were captured by a great sport of a photographer. For them we are truly grateful. We returned home the following day and shared the news with my family. Days later the photographs were released by Spartan and unable to contain our excitement I asked Rachel's father for his permission and blessing to marry her, and then we finally told her grandmother and announced it to our network of friends and family on Facebook. Mixed reactions of "I knew y'all had something going on!" to "I had no idea!" greeted and congratulated us with many blessings.