2016: The Year in Review

Photo credit: https://www.nraila.org/articles/20161223/2016-nra-ila-year-in-review

So, it's been almost a year since I posted here, talking about New Year's Goals.  I'd like to tell you I met that goal of 500 miles in 2016.  But I know I didn't - I don't even have my total mileage to tell you how close (or how far away) I came.  My year was that...interesting.

I ran two halfs in the spring, and skipped a couple races throughout the year (sometimes DNS is the best decision you can make).  I surprised myself and ran an "official" Disney time (sub-3:30) at the Star Wars Dark Side Half in April after committing to my training plan and taking off almost 20 lbs, so that was awesome.  

I had surgery in May (hello hysterectomy, goodbye uterus & all of your complications!) and despite my best intentions of not letting pounds pile on during recovery....they crept back on, and brought some of their friends with them.  Sigh.  And having to defer a summer race I'd been looking forward to was not awesome, but at least it's giving me something to look forward to next year!

The absolute highlight of my year was the birth of this little dude in early June!  My nephew is the cutest thing EVER, and I'm loving my new role as Aunt Jenny, and the ability to spoil him like crazy (and then give him back, lol)!!!!

The real downer of the year is that my family has been dealing with some pretty serious struggles throughout the fall, and all the stress and associated travel seriously impacted my training (basically non-existent) and all the stress eating packed on even more pounds than before!!!  Insert even bigger sigh here.

After watching/cheering on friends and family struggling through the Marine Corps Marathon in October, I found some new motivation and decided to turn around my own struggles and work towards my personal goals again - I wasn't waiting for New Year's to set them this time around.

I'm glad to say that I'm back down to what, at one point, had been my "all-time-highest-weight-ever" (before I started running and lost weight, then put it all back on), and I've had some really GREAT runs recently.  Which probably means I'm due for a stinker of a run soon, but it's amazing how good you feel when you've been struggling for several years and finally can feel yourself turning a corner.

2017's got some BIG plans coming up: I'm already registered for 5 halfs, and that will mean 4 new states, and lots of fun trips with my running peeps and my family.  So here's hoping I'll be able to maintain the momentum and motivation I've gained the past couple months and translate those into a really great year!

New Goals...New Hope???

Okay, it's a brand new year.  2016.  People are making New Years Resolutions and setting new goals.  I'm not big on resolutions, but I do like goals.

I recently realized I didn't set any finite goals for 2015...and looking back on my year, it definitely shows a lack of focus, for sure.  Without motivation, I piled on even more unnecessary weight, my eating habits went to he**, and my running "training" (if you can even call it that) slacked off terribly.  About the only area of my life where I can say I truly found success all year long was in my work life - which is awesome - but it's definitely time to start focusing on ALL OF ME again.

Ok. Soooooo....   My running friends and I are discussing setting the "2016 in 2016" goal for groups of us.  I figure my contribution can safely, and should be, at least 500 miles.  This is a personal goal I had set for the last several years and I like having a number to work towards all year long.

So there it is.  500 miles in 2016.  Plus of course, the standard "lose weight," "eat better,"  "keep up with the blog," ... yadah yadah yadah.  All of which will be important, but for the beginning of the year I'm going to strictly re-focus on getting my training back on track and then let the rest follow.  Lots of hope attached to this one.

Race Report: Too Cold to Hold - 2014

***I found this old race report floating around, un-posted, so decided to go ahead and post, just for fun...***  This is from the January 2014 Too Cold to Hold race in Dallas.

So, the blog's been a little quiet lately - not much to talk about.  Training for the Donna half had been okay - a few big hurdles but nothing that was going to keep me from finishing.  I had a really bad cold that settled in my chest (turns out maybe it was bronchitis?) and that kept me from running at all for a few weeks, so I had to start back slowly, then tweaked my left knee on the stairs (doh!) and ended up skipping a long run just to be on the safe side...

Because I'm a bling whore, when I saw the Too Cold to Hold / Too Hot to Handle race package last year I knew I needed to sign up for it, despite the rather extreme racing conditions ... because check out these medals, peeps.  Awesome, no?  And they FIT TOGETHER!!!!  Must have them!  So I signed up for the cold 10 miler and the hot 15K.

Too Cold to Hold was yesterday morning, and this was the weather forecast, true to the race's name:

Brrrrrrr.  Honestly, if not for the conjoining medals, I probably would have DNS'd this race because of the weather conditions.  And standing at the start line it looked like a lot of people had done just that.  It was COLD.  and WINDY.  At the 5 mile turnaround I made the decision to switch from the 10-miler to the 5-miler, just so I could be out of the cold faster, lol.

The race director/company always puts on a good race and has a nice after party.  They were well-prepared with hot chocolate, and portable heaters, but it was just so cold I didn't stick around too long afterward.  You can't really tell in this picture, but there was ice forming on my hat after I finished.

Post-race.  It was coooooooold!!!

The cool (pardon the pun) medal!