The following is part of a 6 page letter I wrote for Uche's family on what she meant to me and the journy we went on. This is the story of how I met Ms. Orizu. I moved to Nigeria in November 2009. My mentor Shawn S. sat behind me in Mobile House and had told me of this young lady that she needed to introduce me to. This young ladies name was Uche and I had heard from several of the men that she was considered the “hot” girl in the building. One day I was sitting at my desk working and heard Shawn talking to a female so I turned around. Sitting on the edge of Shawn’s desk was this beautiful woman in heels, dark tight jeans and she was telling Shawn about the run she needed to do the next morning, Saturday morning. Her concern was that she needed to run 13 miles to train for the Houston Marathon in January but she would have to get up so early in the morning it would be dark for the majority of her run. Although Banana Island is a nicer area it is still Lagos Nigeria at 4am and a single woman needs to worry about her safety and security. Well, this girl was beyond beautiful so I piped up and told her that I would join her for the run. After she left I walked down the hall a bit to talk to a guy that was into running to find out what I had just signed up for. The next day I woke up at 3:30am, got a ride to Banana Island and met Uche. As we started running I was so excited that I get alone time with this striking woman and tried talking to her. She promptly told me “Shh, I need you to last” so we ran in silence. Now, for those of you that don’t know I’m a big boy…running long distance is not fun or easy for me so I was so happy when another guy showed up in his car! Around mile 8 I needed a rest and rode with him as we followed Uche. After half a lap I got back out and I could feel the blisters on my feet already. I fought through it and around mile 10 it started raining so bad we had to call the run off. THANK YOU! The next week, I offered myself again and she said I could join her as she had to do 13 miles this week! I told her I would if she would allow me to take her to dinner. I bucked up and ran the 13 miles and we went out to Talindo Steak House as our first meal together….my feet were actually bleeding during the meal but I didn’t care. MDP