Photo by Kenneth Ruggiano for Oklahoma Sports & Fitness Magazine

I got a message in my facebook inbox from the owner of Oklahoma Sports and Fitness magazine in mid March. He and I had met a few years back when I submitted an article about my first triathlon and he’d agreed to print it. So, he messaged me, briefly greeted me and then explained that they were looking for a cover model for the May/June issue. 

He explained that they had it narrowed down to me and a couple of others, asked if I’d be interested in the modeling job (without pay, just the glory) and I vehemently agreed, YES!

I was floored! The opportunity to be on the cover of a magazine! Absolutely! 

By the end of the next week, he let me know that I was the one, which was great because by then I wanted it really, really bad.  

The shoot was scheduled to be in Tulsa and was done by a local photographer named Kenneth Ruggiano. Knowing I was going to be driving to Tulsa by myself to do this photoshoot, I started wishing my sister lived closer.  There are just moments that really remind me of the distance sometimes. So, realizing that I had a handful of good friends I could ask to accompany me, and also realizing that it’s a big favor to ask because it’s quite a chunk of time, I asked my friend Claire if she could possibly join me.  Her husband, who is a successful photographer himself, agreed to come home early that day so he could stay with their 3 year old and allow me to steal his wife. The same agreement I made with my husband, except he stayed home with our boys ;)

What stands out most in my memory about the experience was how encouraging he was. While he was shooting he would remark, “Yes! You’re great! That was fantastic! You’re a pro!”  The positive feedback was a much needed confidence boost. Claire was great support as well.  I pushed the self doubt to the back of my mind and tried to make it as awesome as I possibly could. We had a lot of great laughs- Kenny, Sean, Claire… it was just a fun experience all together.